Accumulator Co. v. Julien Electric Co.

57 F. 605, 1893 U.S. App. LEXIS 2808
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York
DecidedJuly 18, 1893
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 57 F. 605 (Accumulator Co. v. Julien Electric Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Accumulator Co. v. Julien Electric Co., 57 F. 605, 1893 U.S. App. LEXIS 2808 (circtsdny 1893).

Opinion

COXE, District Judge.

It is proved beyond question that a Spanish patent was issued to Camille A. Faure June 27, 1881, for a term of 10 years, and that this patent expired June 27, 1891. If the Spanish patent was for the same invention as the patent in suit, it is manifest that the latter expired June 27, 1891. This is the only question: Was the Spanish.patent for the same invention? Section 4887 of the Revised Statutes provides:

"But every patent granted for an invention which has been previously patented in a foreign country shall he so limited as to expire at the same time with the foreign patent; or, if there be more than, one at the same time, with the one having the shortest term.”

In the leading cases of Siemens’ Adm’r v. Sellers, 123 U. S. 276, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 117, and Commercial Manuf’g Co. v. Fairbank Canning Co., 135 U. S. 176, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 718, the supreme court has made the test of identity to depend upon the following propositions: Is the principal invention of the domestic patent found in the foreign patent? Is the subject-matter of the one the same in all essential particulars as that of the other? In other words, will a structure made pursuant to the foreign patent infringe the domestic patent? Could both the patents have been granted in this country?

Would a person skilled in the art, after reading the description of the invention covered by the Spanish patent, be able to construct the electrode described and claimed in the United States patent? In approaching the subject of identity, it should be remembered that Faure is a Frenchman, and that the first description of his invention was written in the French language. From this original it was translated into Spanish and English. Making allowance for philological differences, for errors and unavoidable changes in translation, and for dissimilarities in patent-office procedure, it could hardly be expected that the United States and Spanish patents would emerge from such an ordeal in identical garb, even though it were the avowed purpose of the inventor to make them the same. There seems to be no doubt that the application as filed in the patent office at Washington was almost an exact counterpart of the Spanish patent, and that both the patent and the application were translated from one and the same French original. “It is evident,” says the complainant’s brief, “that the original American application was very much like the Spanish patent. The claims were differently phrased, hut it is quite possible that they were intended by the translator to cover the same subject-matter.” Faure’s invention was described by him in the same language, and was presented for their approval to the patent officials of three countries differing widely in their methods for the protection of inventors. If he had made any new discoveries between the date of the French patent and the dates, respectively, of his application in Spain and in the United States, he certainly failed to note the fact in either specification. The proof that he did make such discoveries is very unsatisfactory. [608]*608This being so, it precludes the idea that Faure had made many kindred inventions along the same lines, which he was desirous of protecting. Like Mr. Brush for instance. 47 Fed. Rep. 48, 51, 54. Clearly it was his intention to take out a patent for the same invention in the two countries. This is not disputed. One of the experts for the complainant says: “These patents [Faure’s] intended to cover the same invention, differ widely.”

Faure had taken an important step forward in the construction of secondary batteries, which may be broadly stated as an improvement on the method of Planté, by adding directly to the support the layer of active material which Planté produced by disintegration after weeks and months of effort. This invention Faure described; this invention he endeavored to have patented in France, Spain and the United States. It is now said that he failed in this undertaking; 'that he patented one invention in Spain, and another in France and in this country. It is argued that this result was accomplished because Faure failed to patent in Spain the invention in the form in which he had actually embodied it, and in which its success had been proved in France — the one form which makes it thoroughly practical and useful. In other words, that he failed to describe the most valuable part of his invention although fully known to him at the time. The inquiry naturally suggests itself, how can this be? How can such a result be reached — an attempt to patent one invention and the actual patenting of another — without the.participation or knowledge of the inventor? It will be found on examination that the supposed differences, which are so greatly magnified, are differences of form and not of substance and grow out of different environments and forms of expression.' The inventor has described several ways in which the active layer may be applied and it is not surprising that the officials of Spain should have given prominence to one way and those of this country to another way.

Again, there is an express admission that the United States and French patents are the same, the specification of the former stating that the invention was “patented in France, October 20, 1880,” and in the oath attached to the application Faure swears that the invention “has been patented to him by letters patent of the French government.” There is also an admission, at least, by implication, that the Spanish and French patents are the same. The Spanish law permitted a patent for 20 years, “if it has for its object new and original inventions,” but if the inventor had obtained a patent therefor in one or more foreign countries the term was for 10 years only. The French patent had been granted, (October 20, 1880,) when the application for the Spanish patent was filed, (April 16, 1881.) The inventor asked for a 10 years’ term in Spain presumably because he knew that he was not entitled to a 20 years’ term, the invention having been patented in France.

Furthermore, the proceedings instituted on behalf of the complainant to reinstate the Spanish patent proceeded upon the theory [609]*609that the French and Spanish patents were for' the same invention. A concession that the French and Spanish patents are the same, is also a concession that the United States and Spanish patents are the same. • The latter two cannot both be like the French patent without being like each other also. The description of what Faure discovered was the same in both cases. If the domestic patent is for another invention, the patent should have been granted to the patent-office officials and not to Faure; the changes are theirs and not his. hToi; only are the two descriptions from the same source, but the drawings, except in a few unimportant details, are identical.

It is a mistake to start out with the hypothesis that the United States patent in terse and perspicuous language, describes the application of the active material in the form of paint, paste or cement, and stops there. It is a mistake to compare the Spanish patent with a patent thus assumed to be clear in language and limited in scope, for it will be found on examination that neither patent is free from ambiguity, and that the real invention of Faure is as plainly proclaimed in the one as in the other.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Robertson v. General Electric Co.
32 F.2d 495 (Fourth Circuit, 1929)
Commercial Acetylene Co. v. Searchlight Gas Co.
197 F. 908 (N.D. Illinois, 1912)
Oval Wood Dish Co. v. Sandy Creek, N. Y., Wood Manuf'g Co.
60 F. 285 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern New York, 1894)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
57 F. 605, 1893 U.S. App. LEXIS 2808, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/accumulator-co-v-julien-electric-co-circtsdny-1893.