Abbott Coin Counter Co. v. Standard-Johnson Co.

290 F. 418, 1923 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1529
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedJune 27, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 290 F. 418 (Abbott Coin Counter Co. v. Standard-Johnson Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Abbott Coin Counter Co. v. Standard-Johnson Co., 290 F. 418, 1923 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1529 (E.D.N.Y. 1923).

Opinion

CAMBELL, District Judge.

This is an action in equity for the alleged infringement of patent No. 1,080,381, issued by the United States Patent Office to H. K. Smith, dated December 2, 1913, and for unfair competition in the manufacture and sale of flat tubular coin wrappers. The answer as to the patent is invalidity and noninfringement, and the alleged unfair competition is denied.

The plaintiff originally based its suit as to the patent on claim 1 thereof, but near the close of the trial was allowed to amend, and also base its suit on claim 3. Since the trial, however, the plaintiff has requested to withdraw claim 3 and base this suit only on claim 1 of said patent in suit, which reads as follows:

“1. In a coin-counting machine, the combination of a centrifugal coin container comprising a stationary shell and a rotary bottom, with an opening in the wall of the shell to expose the rotary bottom; a gate spanning said opening in the wall of the container, so as to leave exposed a peripheral segment of the rotary bottom to receive the coins, which pass one by one through the gate from the interior of the container; a runway having a floor which meets and is flush with the exposed segment of the rotary bottom to receive the coins discharged therefrom; and a rotary carrier wheel located in the runway in close proximity to the centrifugal coin container, to contact with and take hold of each coin before it passes entirely beyond the rotary bottom of said container — substantially as and for the purpose hereinbefore set forth.”

This claim is for a combination, and the elements thereof are (1) a centrifugal coin container, comprising a stationary shell and a rotary bottom, with an opening in the wall of the shell; (2) a gate spanning said opening; (3) a runway having a floor; (4) a rotary carrier wheel [420]*420located in the runway in close proximity to the centrifugal coin container, to contact with and take hold of each coin before it passes entirely beyond the rotary bottom of said container. The best explanation of the patent is found on page 1, lines 8-49, of the plaintiff’s patent in suit (Plaintiff’s Exhibit 1) :

“Under my invention the coins to be counted are placed in a container having a bottom consisting of a rapidly revolving disk on which the coins rest, and through the agency of which they are discharged singly by centrifugal action through a suitable peripheral outlet or gate in the walls of the container. ¡With this centrifugal coin-discharging container I combine a rotary carrier wheel, whose peripheral speed is slightly greater than that of the rotary disk, and which is so located with reference to the point of centrifugal discharge from the container as to take hold of the coin before it leaves the centrifugally acting disk, and, by reason of its relatively greater peripheral speed, takes off and carries away the coin from the disk, keeping it well in advance of the coins in rear, and passing it through the counting portion of the machine, and thence to the stacker tube, bag, or other receptacle for the counted coins. This combination, with the centrifugally discharging container, of a carrier wheel which takes hold of the coin before it leaves the centrifugal bottom of the container, and carries it along with accelerated speed, is, I believe, new with me. By taking the coin with the carrier wheel directly from the centrifugal bottom, the danger of clogging by reason of coins jamming in the runway through which they pass after leaving the container is very much lessened, and, in conjunction with the more rapid peripheral movement of. the carrier wheel, and consequent accelerated speed of the coin, effectually prevents the overlapping of a coin by a following coin, each coin taken by the more rapidly moving carrier wheel being, by its more rapid movement, at once separated from the coin next behind, which has not yet reached the carrier wheel.”

Plaintiff contends that Smith did not necessarily, by the words “stationary shell,” used in claim 1 of the patent in suit, limit himself to an absolutely fixed or immovable shell, but simply one stationary relatively to the disk. I cannot follow plaintiff in this contention, because it is apparent that the only purpose which the shell in the patent in suit was intended to serve was to prevent the coins from being pushed or thrown out of the container, by the centrifugal force exerted by the rotary bottom, at any point other than at the gate, and this function was to be performed by the shell, regardless of the size of the coin.

Nothing in the specification or claims of the patent in suit shows that Smith anticipated that the shell could be used in any way to determine the size of coin to be counted, and I therefore am of the opinion that by the words “stationary shell,” as used in claim 1 of the patent in suit (Plaintiff’s Exhibit 1) it was intended to describe a shell that was absolutely fixed. See page 2, lines 21-24, of the patent in suit:

“The container consists of a cylindrical shell 0, closed at its lower end and firmly attached to the top of the table or frame A, as shown more clearly in section in Fig. 11.”

By the term “gate spanning said opening” the plaintiff cannot claim broadly for any gate, but must be limited to the particular or specific gate structure described in the patent in suit, because there must be an opening for the escape of the coin in every coin-counting device, and to give the broad construction desired by the plaintiff would give to the plaintiff a greater protection than would be accorded to a [421]*421pioneer, and Smith was not a pioneer. This is likewise true as to the runway having a floor. This leaves but one element remaining to be considered:

“A rotary carrier wheel located in the runway in dose proximity to the centrifugal coin container, to contact with and take hold of each coin before it passes entirely beyond the rotary bottom of said container.”

Smith made a great point of the location of the carrier wheel relative to the centrifugal disk or rotary bottom of the container, and claimed for it, in connection with the more rapid peripheral speed of the carrier wheel, great novelty and utility in the art. See patent in suit, page 1, lines 29-49, Plaintiff’s Exhibit 1:

“This combination, with the eentrifugally discharging container, of a carrier wheel which takes hold of the coin before it leaves the centrifugal bottom of the container, and carries it along with accelerated speed, is, I believe, new with me. By taking the coin with the carrier wheel directly from the centrifugal bottom, the danger of clogging by reason of coins jamming in the runway through which they pass after leaving the container is very much lessened, and, in conjunction with the more rapid peripheral movement of the carrier wheel, and consequent accelerated speed of the coin, effectually prevents the overlapping of a coin by a following coin, each coin taken by the more rapidly moving carrier wheel being, by its more rapid movement, at once separated from the coin next behind which has not yet reached the carrier wheel.”

The point so made by Smith I do not believe can be sustained, because it does not seem to me that the placing of the carrier wheel nearer to the centrifugal disk or rotary bottom constituted invention, but such location is necessarily determined and dictated by mechanical skill.

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Bluebook (online)
290 F. 418, 1923 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1529, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/abbott-coin-counter-co-v-standard-johnson-co-nyed-1923.