Anderson & Writer Corp. v. Hanky Beret, Inc.

36 F.2d 412, 3 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 296, 1929 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1706
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedNovember 11, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 36 F.2d 412 (Anderson & Writer Corp. v. Hanky Beret, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anderson & Writer Corp. v. Hanky Beret, Inc., 36 F.2d 412, 3 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 296, 1929 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1706 (S.D.N.Y. 1929).

Opinion

WOOLSEY, District Judge.

I find the plaintiff’s patent No. 1,725,500 valid, that claims 7-11 thereof are infringed by the defendants, and I grant the preliminary-injunction pendente lite, for which the plaintiff prays.

The motion to dismiss the: bill of complaint is denied.

1. Patent No. 1,725,500, which will hereinafter be referred to as the Writer patent, was applied for on November 23, 1928, as a tam-pressing machine. The patent was granted on August 20, 1929, as United States patent No. 1,725,500.

The plaintiff corporation was incorporated under the laws of New York on November 26, 1928, and the patent in suit was duly assigned to it on September 10, 1929.

The defendant corporation Hanky Beret, Inc. was incorporated by the defendant Tannenbaum on April 25, 1929.

Prior to that time the defendant Tannenbaum and a man named Miller had been doing business under the name and style of Petite Hat Company, under a certificate filed on June 28,1928.

The defendant Morris Stafford was an expert machinist who was in the employ of the plaintiff until about April 13, 1929. About that time he was lured away from the plaintiff’s employ by the defendant Tannenbaum, and the affidavits satisfy me that when he left he secretly took with him two typical upper dies of the plaintiff’s machine.

II. Some time during the summer of 1928 Victor P. Writer, to whom the patent in suit was granted, and who had been engaged for some years in the making of hats, went to work to see if he could evolve a machine which would expeditiously make a beret or tarn out of a single piece of felt cloth or other material.

The method by which he arrived at the machine for which he secured the' patent in suit is explained fully in his second affidavit verified October 3,1929.

His first full-sized machine was put into operation in July, 1928. In November, 1928, he and Henry Anderson, who also had been in the hat-making business, formed the Anderson & Writer Corporation and began business together. By that time eight machines were operating in Writer’s place of business.

When the Anderson & Writer Corporation was formed Writer transferred to it these eight machines and his right of invention, for which he had filed a patent application, as above noted, on November 23, 1928.

Anderson for á period of many years had been engaged with his father under the name of Joseph Anderson & Company, Inc., in making ladies’ hats. He had used the trademark “Hanky Felt” or “Hanky” on all the products which his former company had sold. When the Anderson & Writer Corporation was formed, and succeeded to the business of Joseph Anderson & Co., Inc., in December, 1928, the trade-marks of Joseph Anderson & Co., Inc., of “Hanky Felt” and “Hanky,” as used on all kinds of women’s hats, were transferred and conveyed to the Anderson & Writer Corporation.

Thus in combining Anderson brought in certain trade-marks, and Writer brought in his machines, and, when the plaintiff began to manufacture women’s berets, it sold them under the name of “Hanky Beret.” This name was written in characteristic script on the labels of its hats and in its advertising.

The plaintiff’s business grew with the most remarkable rapidity. Commencing in February, 1929, when it got into commercial [413]*413production with 5,621 berets, its monthly production figures had increased almost steadily to 73,944 in August, 1929.

The Writer patent is described as a tarn-pressing machine.

The subject-matter of the Writer patent, on which this complaint is based, as stated in the specifications, relates chiefly to a method and a machine for blocking and pressing tarns or berets for girls.

The general description of the invention is as follows: “The invention proposes the use of a press having a spring holding disc connected with a foot pedal for assuming various positions, and springs connected with the disc and with a movable die engageable in a stationary cup-shaped die. Use is also made of a circular plate with a radial slot made of flexible material such as spring steel for receiving the tarn goods which is spread over one side and the edges then pulled thru a central aperture in the movable die. The said movable die may he provided with heating elements and the tarn goods must be in a wetted condition when worked upon.”

The claims principally relied on by the plaintiff as to which it claims the infringement is clear, in which I agree, axe claims '7 to 11, inclusive.

Claim No. 7 is a method or process claim and reads as follows: “7. The method of producing tam-o’-shanters or the like from a sheet of material, comprising the steps of folding the outer portions of the material inwardly toward its center and holding the marginal edge of the folded material against contraction, pulling the free inner end of the material inwardly from the marginal edge, and subjecting the folded material to the action of pressure in the presence of heat and moisture.”

Claims 8, 9,10, and 11 axe for patents on the machine, and 11 is broader than the three preceding claims, as it is not limited to th,e presence of a flange on the lower die referred to in claims 8, 9, and 10.

Claim 8, which is typical of claims 9 and 10, reads as follows: “8. A machine for making tam-o’-shanters or the like, comprising a lower die having a base and an upstanding flange defining the effective area of the base, an upper die for movement within the flange of the lower die and having an opening extending there-through and spaced from its outer marginal edge, a separate shaping element adapted for insertion within the flange of the lower die and adapted to have the material of the article folded over the same and serving to hold the marginal edge of the material against contraction, the opening in the upper die affording access to the free inner end of the material whereby it may be pulled inwardly from the marginal edge, means to effect a relative closing movement between the dies, and means to heat one die.”

Claim 11 reads as follows: “In a machine for making tam-o’-shanters or the like, a lower die, an upper die for co-action therewith' and having an opening formed there-through and spaced from its marginal edge, a shaping element to he removably mounted between said dies and adapted to have the material of the article folded about the same, said shaping element having a diameter approximating that of the upper die whereby the outer edge of the shaping element is disposed adjacent to the outer edge of the upper die and remote from the opening of the upper die, the opening in the upper die affording access to the free inner edge of the material for pulling action, means to heat one die, and means to effect a relative closing movement between the dies.”

The essential novelty and the reason for the success of the Writer machine is that the cloth when pulled through the upper die, over the flat metal plate or forming disc is free to move in any direction, and, when a wetted cloth is in use, it can stretch, not merely radially over the forming disc, but in any other direction in which its texture tends to yield. Thus an interplay of stretching, expansion, and contraction, when the cloth dries, is permitted with these forces acting at angles across each other to the substantial and permanent rearrangement of the set of the fabric.

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Related

Anderson & Writer Corp. v. Kane
51 F.2d 425 (S.D. New York, 1931)

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Bluebook (online)
36 F.2d 412, 3 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 296, 1929 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1706, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-writer-corp-v-hanky-beret-inc-nysd-1929.