Bellavance v. Frank Morrow Co.

140 F.2d 419, 60 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 311, 1944 U.S. App. LEXIS 3956
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedFebruary 4, 1944
DocketNo. 3914
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 140 F.2d 419 (Bellavance v. Frank Morrow Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bellavance v. Frank Morrow Co., 140 F.2d 419, 60 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 311, 1944 U.S. App. LEXIS 3956 (1st Cir. 1944).

Opinion

WOODBURY, Circuit Judge.

The plaintiff is the owner of two United States patents: No. 2,108,247 which was granted to him on February 15, 1938, and No. 2,114,930 which was granted on April 19, 1938, to Peter Manickas and assigned to him on April 16, 1941. They are for a “Bracelet and Method of Making the Same” and for a “Bracelet” respectively. The first patent contains four claims, one article claim followed by three method claims; the second contains only two claims, both article ones.

The plaintiff filed complaints against the defendant in the court below alleging infringement of both patents generally, that is, he did not specify infringement of any particular claims of either patent, and the defendant answered denying infringement and alleging that both of the plaintiff’s patents were invalid for anticipation and lack of patentable invention.

The court below found that the claims of both patents were fully anticipated by the prior art; that both the Bellavance and Manickas bracelets were not the result of invention as distinguished from mere mechanical skill, and that both patents had not been infringed by the defendant. Apparently, however, it did not consider claims 3 and 4 of the Bellavance patent. Following the opinion and judgment of the district court the plaintiff moved “That the Court Amend its Findings and Make Additional Findings and Amend its Conclusions of Law and Make Additional Conclusions of Law” and also “That the Court Vacate the Judgment for Defendant and-Amend or Enter a New Judgment”. In connection with the latter motion the plaintiff filed requests for rulings of law. The court below denied these motions and the requests for rulings and the plaintiff thereupon appealed to' us therefrom and also from the judgment entered for the defendant in accordance with the findings of invalidity and non-infringement.

The patents in suit relate to ornamental bracelets of the type which consist of parts joined together by hinges, usually two semi-circular parts joined by one hinge, and provided with a catch or latch so that when opened and put on they can be fastened closely around the wrist of the wearer so they will not fall off. Bracelets of this type are admittedly old, having been well known at least since 1880, and probably since long before that. The plaintiff makes no claim that his patents cover them. What he does claim under his patents is a bracelet of the above type with the hinge and catch members attached to the curved members by what is called swaging, and the method of practicing swaging with mechanically operated tools on the very thin metal stock ordinarily used in the manufacture of bracelets.

The evidence is that for years hinges and catches were fastened to the curved sections of bracelets of the type under consideration by soldering or riveting. But the plaintiff says that these methods are not only expensive but are also unsatisfactory because solder does not always hold and rivets mar the appearance of the finished product. He says that his method avoids these undesirable features.

His method consists in forming the curved sections of bracelets of the kind described “from channel shaped metal stock” or stock “shaped to provide lateral flanges located upon opposite sides thereof [421]*421and extending inwardly from the inner curved surface of the member”.1 Between these lateral flanges he inserts the plate portion of a hinge, or the analogous part of a catch, and then fastens them in place by striking a portion of the inner face of the flange down onto the hinge plate or catch plate so as to grip it against the bottom of the inner surface of the curved member. This is swaging.

The Manickas scheme is very much like the one used by Bellavance. Both used curved members made of channel shaped stock and both employ swaging, but Manickas’ lateral flanges do not extend for their whole distance straight out at right angles from the flat part of the stock as Bellavance’s do. They extend out at right angles only a short way and then are bent toward one another usually about 90°, so that in cross section the stock used by Manickas is shaped roughly like a rectangle with most of the mid-portion of one side removed. In Manickas’ the hinge .or catch plate to be fastened is slid in between the flanges or beads and under the parts of the flanges which overhang and are fastened by swaging down portions of this, the overhanging part of the flange.

With this explanation it is hoped that the claims of the patents, which are copied in the margin,2 will be intelligible.

[422]*422Now swaging is not a new technique. We can take judicial notice of the fact that in one form or another it has been practiced for years and probably for centuries by blacksmiths. It has also been used by other workers in metals, including workers in thin metal parts of small dimension like pen points. See C. Howard Hunt Pen Co. v. Radiant Point Pen Corp., 2 Cir., 135 F.2d 870. This is not disputed by the plaintiff but he contends that it was not only new to swage a lug out of the thin metal stock used in the art of making bracelets but also that to do so called for an exercise of the faculty of invention. As we have seen, the court below thought otherwise and we agree.

First we shall consider the article claims; claim one of the Bellavance patent and both claims of the Manickas patent.

It seems to us clear that all of these claims are anticipated by the prior art, particularly by the Hiering patent (No. 1,996,109) upon which the court below principally relied. This patent was granted on February 17, 1934 for “Bag Frame Member and Method of Securing Elements Thereto”. It discloses a metal frame for women’s hand bags made out of thin, channel shaped stock and having mitered corners reenforced by a flat angle-iron inserted between the flanges or side walls and gripped securely in place by what the patentee calls “tabs” (it is evident from the drawings that “tabs” are identical with what are called “lugs” in the plaintiff’s patents), struck out of the inner surfaces of the flanges. Obviously a hand bag frame is not a bracelet, but the art of making one is not poles apart from the art of making the other. The arts are sufficiently analogous to one another so that we can discern no exercise of the faculty of invention in conceiving the idea of using a technique practiced in one, the art of making bag frames, in the other, the art of making bracelets.

That Hiering anticipated the Bellavance article claim is clear (both used straight upstanding flanges), but the plaintiff contends that the same cannot be said with respect to the Manickas claims because Hiering did not show Manickas’ inbent or over-hanging flanges. This is true, but it does not seem to us that it is enough to negative anticipation. The difference in the shapes of the flanges is too minor a matter to require the conclusion as matter of law that the ordinary journeyman familiar with Hiering would not think of applying his teaching to the type of flange conceived by Manickas.

We come now to the method claims; claims 2, 3 and 4 of the Bellavance patent.

Although as we have already noted there is some doubt as to whether or not the court below actually made any findings at all with respect to claims 3 and 4, there can be no doubt that it found claim 2 invalid. We shall address our attention to this claim first and then turn to the others.

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Bluebook (online)
140 F.2d 419, 60 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 311, 1944 U.S. App. LEXIS 3956, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bellavance-v-frank-morrow-co-ca1-1944.