Alaska Packers' Ass'n v. Pacific Steam Whaling Co.

93 F. 672, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 3009
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern California
DecidedMarch 16, 1899
DocketNo. 12,721
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 93 F. 672 (Alaska Packers' Ass'n v. Pacific Steam Whaling Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alaska Packers' Ass'n v. Pacific Steam Whaling Co., 93 F. 672, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 3009 (circtndca 1899).

Opinion

MORROW, Circuit Judge

(orally). This is an application for a provisional injunction to restrain the defendants from infringing letters patent of the United States numbered 281,767, for an improved can-filling machine. The complainant is a California corporation, having its principal place of business in tbe city and county of San Francisco, and engaged, in the, territory of Alaska and at other places, in the business of packing salmon, in hermetically sealed cans. The defendant Pacific Steam Whaling Company is also a corporation organized under the laws of the state of California, and engaged in the same business as complainant, while the business of the defendant F. A. Robbins Press Works, a corporation of the same state, is that of repairing machinery. The patent in controversy is, now owned by complainant, by virtue of various assignments forming a chain of title from the patentee, Mathias Jensen, to whom letters patent of the United States, No. 281,767, were issued on July 24, 1883, for a can-filling machine. It is a complicated mechanism of steel, iron, and brass, composed of a receiving hopper, semicylindrical rotary back, with forks, knives, measuring chamber, spout, plunger, reciprocating plate, etc., and operated by a shaft and various arms, levers, rollers, and cams, and intervening con[673]*673necting devices. It appears from the affidavits on behalf of the defendants in this case that the Pacific Steam Whaling Company for the past nine years has been engaged in the business of packing salmon in the territory of Alaska, and is the owner and operator of five different canneries for canning and packing salmon in said territory; that these canneries are situated in different places in Alaska, many hundreds of miles apart, and without any direct or regular means of communication between them; that at different times since the defendant Pacific Steam Whaling Company has been engaged in the salmon-packing business, commencing with the year 1889, it has purchased six of the Jensen can-filling machines, and is now the owner of all of the six machines so purchased; that each and every one of these machines was sold to defendant by the owners of the Jensen patent, or by their licensees; that, before the commencement of the season of each year, the defendant Pacific Steam Whaling Company has brought its can-filling machines to San Francisco, and delivered them to the F. A. Robbins Press Works for repair. It is claimed by the defendant Pacific Steam Whaling Company that such repairs have been only those ordinarily required to keep the machines in good working oyder, and, with a single exception, the repairs did not include the rebuilding of any of the patented parts of the machines; that, with respect to one of the machines, the defendant desired to have certain parts built heavier and stronger than they had previously been, and accordingly the F. A. Robbins Press Works so rebuilt and reconstructed the macliine that it is admittedly now a practically new machine; and that this rebuilt machine, together with the others that have been repaired, the defendant is about to ship to its canneries in Alaska. Complainant asks that defendants be restrained from making, using, selling, transferring, or delivering to any person whatever any such can-filling machines, or any parts thereof, and from counterfeiting or imitating said machines; also, from sending or-shipping or transporting to the territory of Alaska, or to any other place whatever, from the city and county of San Francisco, those certain Jensen can-filling machines referred to in the affidavits, or any of the parts thereof, now in the possession of the F. A. Robbins Press Works, or the defendant Pacific Steam Whaling Company. The repaired machines are designated as Nos. 69, 70, and 108. The rebuilt machine is without a number. It is claimed on behalf of the complainant that the repairs of the three numbered machines have extended to such parts as are specifically covered by the claims of the patent.

My view of the questions now before the court is that the well-known principles governing the issuance of injunctions pendente lite are applicable lo a case of this character. The granting of the injunction rests in the sound discretion of the court. But the court is not called upon to determine the merits of the case upon this application. As stated in paragraph 5 of High on Injunction:

“It is to be conslantly borne in mind that, in granting temporary relief by interlocutory injunction, courts of equity in no manner anticipate the ultimate determination of the questions of right involved. They merely recognize that a sufficient case has been made out to warrant the preservation of the property or rights in issue in statu quo, until a hearing upon the merits, without [674]*674expressing, and, indeed, without haying the means of forming, a final opinion as to such rights. And, in order to sustain an injunction for the protection of-property pendente lite, it is not necessary to decide in favor of plaintiff upon the merits; nor is it necessary that he should present such a case as will certainly entitle him to a decree upon the final hearing, since he may he entitled to an interlocutory injunction, although his right to the relief prayed may ultimately fail.”

It will not be necessary, therefore, to determine upon this hearing the final question of an infringement. But the general principles of the law governing the subject of repairing and reconstructing patented machines will materially aid the court in determining the present application. The purchaser of a patented machine may repair the machine which he has purchased, by replacing worn-out parts, so long as the identity of the machine is not destroyed. Wilson v. Simpson, 9 How. 109; Gottfried v. Brewing Co., 8 Fed. 322; Young v. Foerster, 37 Fed. 203; Shickle, Harrison & Howard Iron Co. v. St. Louis Car-Coupler Co., 23 C. C. A. 433, 77 Fed. 739. The sale of an entire machine carries with it the right to replace a part which, in its relation to the whole structure, is temporary in its nature, although such part may be one of the novel or valuable devices covered by the claims of the patent. Farrington v. Board, 4 Fish. Pat. Cas. 216, Fed. Cas. No. 4,687. But the right to repair does not include the right to build a new machine, or to reconstruct or rebuild an old one. Mitchell v. Hawley, 16 Wall. 544.

In the case of Singer Mfg. Co. v. Springfield Foundry Co., 34 Fed. 393, the action was for an infringement of several claims of three different patents for improvements in sewing machines. The sewing machine of the complainant was not patented as an entirety, but different parts of the machine were covered by different patents. The claims of one of these patents covered an improved shuttle driver, and the defendant made and sold this device to be used in the complainant’s machine. The claim of another patent was for a shuttle race for an oscillating shuttle. The defendant made this shuttle race for use in the complainant’s machine. There were also combination claims, the main elements of which were made and sold by the defendant for use in the complainant’s machine. The court held that the manufacture and sale of these devices constituted an infringement of the complainant’s patents. It is contended by counsel for the complainant here that the doctrine of this case is applicable to the case now before the court; but it will be found upon examination that the decision in the case just cited is based upon the law as declared by the supreme court in Wilson v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
93 F. 672, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 3009, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alaska-packers-assn-v-pacific-steam-whaling-co-circtndca-1899.