Beadle v. F. W. Woolworth Co.

17 F. Supp. 830, 1937 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2162
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedJanuary 7, 1937
DocketNo. 7769
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 17 F. Supp. 830 (Beadle v. F. W. Woolworth 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
Beadle v. F. W. Woolworth Co., 17 F. Supp. 830, 1937 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2162 (E.D.N.Y. 1937).

Opinion

CAMPBELL, District Judge.

This is a suit for the alleged infringement of patent No. 1,916,943 issued to Blanche E. Beadle for hair former granted July 4, 1933, on an application filed February 23, 1932.

The plaintiff has title to the patent in suit, and notice of infringement was given before the commencement of this suit.

The defendant has interposed an answer setting up the defenses of invalidity and noninfringement.

This suit is based on claims 5, 8, 9, and 14 of the patent in suit, although more claims were alleged in the bill of complaint.

The sale by the defendant of the hair formers, Exhibits 1, 2, 3, and 4, which are alleged to infringe, within the Eastern District of New York, subsequent to the issuance of the patent and within six years prior to the commencement of this suit, is admitted.

Plaintiff contends that these formers represent two styles illustrated by Figs. 1 and 2 of the patent in suit.

Defendant contends the patent in suit is invalid by reason of anticipation and noninvention over the prior art.

Defendant concedes that, if the patent in suit is valid Exhibit 1 infringes, but contends that Exhibits 2, 3, and 4, in any event, do not infringe.

The patent in suit relates to a hair dressing device described as a “hair former,” and also known to the trade as a “former” or “roller.”

A hair former is normally adapted to be worn publicly in the hair during the waking hours of the day, as distinguished from ordinary hair curlers and wavers which are usually worn privately at night, for the sole purpose of distorting the hair so that it will have a curl or wave after they are removed.

Three forms of the former or roller, described in the patent in suit, are illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, and 3 thereof, all possessing the same general characteristics, that is, they are necessarily formed of á pair of equal parallel side members of pliable “wire such as copper, iron or other more or less bendable material * * * ” “which is relatively non-resilient, so that they may be bent into various shapes and will retain their shape.” The wire is covered with “fabric, rubber or the like.” The two side members are “joined together at or adjacent their ends” in such parallel [832]*832relation, and form an elongated hair-receiving slot between them. The resulting effective length of the slot for hair-receiving purposes is something less than the length of the members, and the ends project at either side free of hair. By these projecting ends, which serve as handles, the side members may be grasped, shaped, and otherwise manipulated by the thumb and fingers of the user, who at all times has hold of the ends of both side members, completely controlling them and enabling her to shape or otherwise manipulate them freely without grasping them intermediate their ends for that purpose.

[831]*831

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
17 F. Supp. 830, 1937 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2162, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beadle-v-f-w-woolworth-co-nyed-1937.