Beckwith v. Malleable Iron Range Co.

195 F. 291, 1912 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1635
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Wisconsin
DecidedMarch 7, 1912
StatusPublished

This text of 195 F. 291 (Beckwith v. Malleable Iron Range Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beckwith v. Malleable Iron Range Co., 195 F. 291, 1912 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1635 (E.D. Wis. 1912).

Opinion

SANBORN, District Judge.

This matter comes up on a certificate of the master for instructions in respect to a patent accounting, for infringement of a patent sustained in (C. C.) 174 Fed. 1001; (C. C. A.) 189 Fed. 74.

[292]*292Complainant.having a decree for profits and damages, the case was referred to a master:

“To ascertain, take and state, and report to tbe court, an account of the number of ranges embodying said invention and improvement * * * made, used, and sold by the defendant, and also the gains, profits, and advantages which the defendant has received, or have arisen or accrued to it, since the 18th day of April, 1905, from infringing the said exclusive rights of complainant by the manufacture, use, or sale of said improvement, * * * and damages which the complainant has suffered by said infringement, as well as, and in addition to, the aforesaid profits since said date of notice. * * * That the complainant, on said accounting, have the right to cause an examination of the officers and employes of defendant corporation ore tenus, or otherwise, and also the production of the books, vouchers, and documents of the corporation, * * * and that said complainant, or his representatives, shall at all reasonable times have access to the books, vouchers, and documents of defendant, and that if, in addition to the books, documents, and vouchers produced, any other books, vouchers, and documents are deemed necessary by the complainant for the ascertainment of damages and profits, then upon a showing to the master, and if the said master shall deem the same necessary, the defendant shall produce the same at such time and place as the master may designate, and in default thereof then complainant, or his representatives may, upon the order of the master, have access to all such books, vouchers, and documents of defendant at its office in Beaver Dam, Wis.”

[1] The patent device in question is a reservoir for a kitchen range. The range and reservoir may be sold or used either conjointly or separately, as may be preferred. Being an improvement to a device, as distinguished from an improved device, the case falls within the first rule laid down in Garretson v. Clark, 111 U. S. 120, 4 Sup. Ct. 291, 28 L. Ed. 371, where it is held:

“Where a patent is for an improvement, and not for an entirely new machine or contrivance, the patentee must show in what particulars his improvement has added to the usefulness of the machine or contrivance. He must separate its results distinctly from those of the other parts, so that the benefits derived from it may be distinctly seen and appreciated. The rule on this head is aptly stated by Mr. Justice Blatchford in the court below: ‘The patentee,’ he says, ‘must in every case, give evidence tending to separate or apportion the defendant’s profits and the patentee’s damages between the patented feature and the unpatented features, and such evidence must be reliable and tangible, and not conjectural or speculative.’ ”

Garretson v. Clark4 expresses the cardinal rule of patent accountings, and the case has been universally followed. It has been cited with, approval by federal courts over 60 times, in the following among other cases: Keystone Mfg. Co. v. Adams, 151 U. S. 139, 147, 14 Sup. Ct. 295, 38 L. Ed. 103; McCreary v. Pennsylvania Canal Co., 141 U. S. 459, 12 Sup. Ct. 40, 40 L. Ed. 35; Westinghouse v. N. Y. Air Brake Co., 140 Fed. 545, 72 C. C. A. 61; Elgin Wind-Power & Pump Co. v. Nichols, 105 Fed. 780, 45 C. C. A. 49 (7th Circuit); Brown v. Lanyon Zinc Co., 179 Fed. 309, 102 C. C. A. 497. By this rule the complainant has the burden of proof as to profits and damages, except as to improvements of patented devices or processes made by defendant.

Other forms of reservoir ranges -were well known at the time the infringement commenced, and complainant is entitled to the value of whatever he added to the art; that is, to the difference between his improved reservoir and any other which was open to the public, [293]*293or to the defendant, April 18, 1905, when notice of infringement was given. If by the use of the patent defendant made profits, using as the standard of comparison any stich other reservoir so open to it, they belong to complainant. If there was no profit, then whatever saving there may have been in appropriating the patent over any other sucli device likewise may be recovered by way of profits. This adoption of a prior device as a standard of comparison in case of a separable improvement is the rule adopted in McCreary v. Pennsylvania Canal Co., 141 U. S. 459, 463, 12 Sup. Ct. 40, 35 L. Ed. 817, Brown v. Lanyon Zinc Co., 179 Fed. 309, 102 C. C. A. 497, American Street Flushing Machine Co. v. St. Louis Street F. M. Co. (C. C. A.) 192 Fed. 121, and Columbia Wire Co. v. Kokomo Steel & Wire Co., 194 Fed. 108, 114 C. C. A.-, in this circuit.

[2] The master issued a summons to defendant, in substance like that in 3 Foster’s Federal Practice, 2264, requiring it to render a sworn statement of account in writing showing the following information :

(a) Number of ranges made or sold during the infringing period, which contained the infringing reservoir.
(b) Names of purchasers.
(c) Dates of sales.
(d) Price received.
(e) Gains and profits made thereon.

The defendant was 'also required to specify in the account the following items:

(1) Whole number of infringing ranges made.
(2) Names and addresses of purchasers, date, number bought, and a com- ■ píete description of the ranges so sold.
(3) Selling price of range without reservoir.
Selling price of reservoir without range, “together with the other elements of claim 31 of said patent.”
Discount to purchasers.
Freight allowed to purchasers.
Rebate or credit allowed to purchaser.
Net amount received for range.
Net amount received for reservoir.
(4) Itemized manufacturer’s cost of range.
Itemized cost for labor.
Itemized cost for material.
Itemized cost of reservoirs for material.
Itemized cost of reservoirs for labor.
Itemized cost of contact plates and attachments for material, same for labor.
(5) Cost and expense of sale of range with infringing reservoir.
(6) Entire profits on each sale of range with infringing reservoir.
(7) Same on account of use of patented features.
(8) Gains by use of infringing reservoir over the style formerly made by-defendant.

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Related

Garretson v. Clark
111 U.S. 120 (Supreme Court, 1884)
McCreary v. Pennsylvania Canal Co.
141 U.S. 459 (Supreme Court, 1891)
Keystone Manufacturing Co. v. Adams
151 U.S. 139 (Supreme Court, 1894)
Elgin Wind Power & Pump Co. v. Nichols
105 F. 780 (Seventh Circuit, 1901)
Westinghouse v. New York Air Brake Co.
140 F. 545 (Second Circuit, 1905)
Goss Printing Press Co. v. Scott
148 F. 393 (D. New Jersey, 1906)
Beckwith v. Malleable Iron Range Co.
174 F. 1001 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Wisconsin, 1910)
Brown v. Lanyon Zinc Co.
179 F. 309 (Eighth Circuit, 1910)
Malleable Iron Range Co. v. Beckwith
189 F. 74 (Seventh Circuit, 1911)
Columbia Wire Co. v. Kokomo Steel & Wire Co.
194 F. 108 (Seventh Circuit, 1911)

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Bluebook (online)
195 F. 291, 1912 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1635, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beckwith-v-malleable-iron-range-co-wied-1912.