American Laundry Machinery Co. v. United States Hoffman Co.

271 F. 856, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 1878
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedMarch 2, 1921
DocketNo. 27
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 271 F. 856 (American Laundry Machinery Co. v. United States Hoffman Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Laundry Machinery Co. v. United States Hoffman Co., 271 F. 856, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 1878 (2d Cir. 1921).

Opinion

MANTON, Circuit judge.

The appellant brought this suit for infringement of letters patent No. 962,213. It is a manufacturer of laundry machinery. Its chief business is the sale of equipment for laundries, while the appellee is the manufacturer of garment pressing machines—that is, machines for pressing suits of clothes and woolen clothes. Its garment presses were made under patents which it owned. They appeared on the market as early as 1910. The appellant sold the garment press manufactured by the appellee as a jobber up to 1911, and in 1918 brought out a garment pressing machine.

The claims involved are 5 and 9 and read as follows:

“5. The combination with the heated platen and a hollow padded work suppox-t movable relatively toward and from the platen to press the material between them, the platen being adapted to co-operate with substantially the entire working surface of the bed at the same time during the pressing operation, of means for passing air through the padding to remove the moisture therefrom during the pressing operation.”
“9. In an ironing machine, the combination with a heated platen of a hollow perforated bed having a padded covering and formed to permit the platen to co-operate with the entire working surface of said bed at the same time, and means for passing air through the bed and the padding at the edges of the latter during the pressing operation.”

The application for the patent was filed in December, 1904. Erom the file wrapper and contents, it appears that claim 5, as originally filed, was objected to and rejected on the patents to Benjamin, No. 675,435, and Ericson, No. 622,336. This claim was again redrafted, and rejected by the Patent Office on the same Benjamin and Ericson record, for the reason that, it was said, no invention would be required to supply the bed in the Benjamin patent with air, or to substitute a pump for the blower in the Ericson patent. Claim 5 was then amended so as to add the words to “press the material.” Claim 9, as originally filed, was rejected because of the patents to Benjamin and Ericson, and the claims were redrafted, so limiting them as to keep the pad on the bed dry so that the speed of the operation of the machine could be increased and therefore its capacity. Nowhere in the original claims, or any of the proposed amended claims, or the final accepted claims, did it appear by the language used that the applicant intended there would be any drying of goods after the pressing operation.

The claims as allowed provide that the pressing iron “remains in contact with the goods during the entire pressing and drying operation,” and the patent describes the operation of the machine so that the pad work support with the goods is raised against the heated platen, and that the parts are permitted to remain in this position as long as desired ; the moisture being removed from the pad and the goods by the. air pressure apparatus connected with the chamber. The drying of the goods, so much as there is, must he while the platen and padded work support are in contact with the goods during the entire pressing and [858]*858drying operation. The whole idea and scope of the invention, as finally allowed, is, as is stated in the patent, to keep its pad dry, “this result being accomplished by varying the air pressure at the upper side of the padded surface and removing the moisture and steam as it is liberated or generated by the application of the hot iron.” It thus appears, from the proceedings in the Patent Office and the claims as finally allowed, that the improvement in the art must be limited to the sense in which the words are employed. This is essential, in view of the prior art, to escape anticipation by the Benjamin and Ericson patents.

We agree with the court below in its conclusions that the prior art discloses that to blow air through the pad of a pressing machine operated on the rotary or progressive ironing plan was old; also to press the article while in a fixed position by bringing down upon it a heated platen, which remains stationary upon it, except for the downward pressure, was old and extensively used; and the passing of air through a perforated pad was old and used in stereotyping matrices. The appellant’s patent, however, provides for perforating the plate or pad support of a laundry machine for the purpose of passing air through it either by pressure or suction. A method of drying the pad was long needed in the art, and the appellant’s patent made the way for this accomplishment. In this'respect, there was progress and invention. The patentees have invented a simple, but efficient, way for this accomplishment. But, because of the state of the prior art, we think the patentees were so limited in the claims which were allowed them in the Patent Office, by the words used in their claims, that they have restricted themselves to a construction in which the air passed through the pad during the period of the pressing operation.

[1] Where an inventor, seeking a broad claim, as the patentee did here, finds his claim rejected, and after rejection acquiesces, and substitutes phraseology; which results in the grant of a narrower claim, he cannot insist that the construction of the claim allowed shall cover that which has been previously rejected. Computing Scale Co. v. Automatic Scale Co., 204 U. S. 609, 27 Sup. Ct. 307, 51 L. Ed. 645; Corbin Cabinet Lock Co. v. Eagle Lock Co., 150 U. S. 40, 14 Sup. Ct. 28, 37 L. Ed. 989. Nor can he maintain successfully that his granted claims cover prior devices which are operative under the original claims which have been rejected. Hubbell v. U. S., 179 U. S. 80, 21 Sup. Ct: 24, 45 L. Ed. 95; Leggett v. Avery, 101 U. S. 257, 25 L. Ed. 865; Nathan Support Co. v. Cammeyer (C. C. A.) 264 Fed. 968.

[2] Again, the evidence is quite clear here that the method of performing the work of laundering clothes and pressing garments is not the same. In the laundry press, the goods are put in wet or dampened, while in the garment press the goods are put in dry and steam applied to the garment above or below, or both, to wet it. One of the objects desired in the laundry press is that the hot pad head is used, not only to iron or press the goods to give them a “beautiful domestic finish,” but to dry them by converting the steam into moisture, which is absorbed by the pad. On the other hand, the garment press desires no polish, and it is necessary that goods remain dry during the pressing [859]*859operation, so that the wrinkles may be taken out where not desired, and creases put in them where desired. In the laundry machine it is desired that all moisture be taken out of the goods during operation, and in the garment pressing machine it is the most steam which softens the fabric, so that it can be restored to its original shape while being pressed, and after the pressing operation is completed the goods are still soft, moist, and hot, and the air is then used to dry the garment quickly.

With these differences in mind, can it be said that the appellee’s machine infringes appellant’s patent? The appellant’s catalogue describes the pressing system of ironing.

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Bluebook (online)
271 F. 856, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 1878, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-laundry-machinery-co-v-united-states-hoffman-co-ca2-1921.