Bolte & Weyer Co. v. Knight Light Co.

180 F. 412, 103 C.C.A. 558, 1910 U.S. App. LEXIS 4777
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedMay 11, 1910
DocketNo. 1,635
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 180 F. 412 (Bolte & Weyer Co. v. Knight Light Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bolte & Weyer Co. v. Knight Light Co., 180 F. 412, 103 C.C.A. 558, 1910 U.S. App. LEXIS 4777 (7th Cir. 1910).

Opinion

GROSSCUP, Circuit Judge,

after stating the facts as above, delivered the opinion:

Counsel for appellant lay down the rule of infringement as follows: “Would an ordinary purchaser, familiar with the design of the patent, be deceived into purchasing the defendant’s device, believing it was the device of the patent?” and in support of this test cite the cases of Smith v. Whitman Saddle Co., 148 U. S. 680, 13 Sup. Ct. 768, 37 L. Ed. 606, and Jennings v. Kibbe (C. C.) 10 Fed. 669. We do not think that these cases support this test. The rule laid down in Jennings v. Kibbe (quoted in Smith v. Whitman Saddle Co.) is as follows: ....

“The true test of identity of design is sameness of appearance — in other words, sameness of effect upon the eye; that it is not necessary that the ap[414]*414pearance should be the same to the eye of an expert, and that the test is the eye of an ordinary observer, the eyes of men generally, of observers of ordinary acuteness, bringing to the examination of the article upon which the design has been placed that degree of observation which men of ordinary intelligence give.”

Design patents are to make that, which otherwise is useful, ornamental as well. Many designs, while differing in detail, may present to the ordinary observer the same appearance. “Sameness of appearance” is “identity of design.” But the object in a design patent is not to identify the article as an article of trade, but to ornament it so as to make it pleasing to the eye, the true rule being, What is the aesthetic effect? And does the alleged infringing device produce upon the eye of the ordinary observer the same aesthetic effect? The “sameness of appearance” is the sameness of aesthetic effect on the eye.

In the case before us, it does not seem to us that the aesthetic effect of the patented design, and of the alleged infringing design, are the same. Neither, to say the least, is distinctively aesthetic. Whether the patented design is sufficiently so to entitle it to a patent, we do not decide. The alleged infringing device departs from the lines so widely — produces, in our judgment, upon the eye of the observer, in the matter of pleasingness of effect, a result so different — that we cannot hold it to be the same design.

The decree of .the Circuit Court is affirmed.-

NOTE. — The following is the opinion of Kohlsaat, Circuit Judge, in the lower court:

KG-HXiSAAT, Circuit Judge.

Complainant, who had heretofore been granted a mechanical patent for the device in suit, brings suit to enjoin infringement of design patent No. 38,638 granted to J. J, Weyer for a lamp on June 25, 1907. At the outset defendant insists that inasmuch as section 4933 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3399) provides that “all the regulations and provisions which apply to obtaining or protecting patents for inventions or discoveries not inconsistent with the provision of this title, shall apply to patents for designs,” therefore it was incumbent on the patentee to file with his application a written description of his design and of the manner and process of making and using it “in such full, clear, concise, and. exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art or science,” etc., to make and use the same, and that, not having done this, the patent is void.
It appears from the following decisions of the Commissioner of Patents, viz., Ex parte Freeman, 104 O. 6. 1396, Ex parte Remington, 114 O. G. 761, and Ex parte Mygatt, 117 O. G. 598, that descriptions were not only not required, but forbidden, and it further appears that as a general rule they are not furnished; so that a large number of design patents are issued without the furnishing of descriptions. In Gorham Company v. White, 14 Wall. 525, 20 L. Ed. 731, the court, speaking by Mr. Justice Strong, says of a design patent: “It is the appearance itself which attracts attention and calls out favor or dislike. It is the appearance itself, therefore, no matter by what agency'caused, that constitutes mainly, if not entirely, the contribution to the public which the law deems worthy of recompense.” This is approved in Smith v. Whitman Saddle Company, 148 U. S. 680, 13 Sup. Ct. 770, 37 L. Ed. 606, where the court, speaking by the Chief Justice, quotes the language of Mr. Justice Blatchford when Circuit Judge in Jennings v. Kibbe (C. C.) 10 Fed. 669, viz.:
“The true test of identity of design is sameness of appearance — in other words, sameness of effect upon the eye — that it is not necessary that the appearance should be the same to the eye of an expert and that the test is the eye of an ordinary observer, the eyes of men generally, of observers of ordinary acuteness, bringing to the examination of the article upon which the de[415]*415sign has been placed that degree of observation which men of ordinary intelligence give.” This is the settled doctrine. That being so, it is not apparent why any description should be supplied. In Dobson v. Dornan, 118 U. S. 10, 6 Sup. Ct. 946, 30 L. Ed. 63, it is held that no description other than a drawing or photograph need be filed. This was approved in Anderson v. Saint (C. C.) 46 Fed. 761, and Britton v. White Mfg. Co. (C. C.) 61 Fed. 96. Surely this matter should and does come under the “regulations and provisions” which are excepted as “inconsistent” by section 4933 above quoted. Details in the matter and manner of construction of a design patent are unimportant except in so far as they enter into the ordinarily observant man’s conception or impression of the whole design. It is the picture made upon his mind in general, which governs, not the minor differences which close examination would reveal, nor those which might catch the scrutinizing eyes of an expert.
Defendant sets up invalidity and want of infringement. Just what is the law with regard to design patents as applied to a mechanical device does not seem to be entirely clear. The statute of 1842 (Act Aug. 29, 1842, c. 264, § 3, 5 Stat. 543) provided for the granting of a design patent to any citizen who “invented or produced any new and original design for a manufacture * * * or any new and original shape or configuration of any article of manufacture,” etc. Gorham Co. v. White, supra, was based upon this statute. By the amendment of 1870 (Act July 8, 1870, e. 230, § 71, 16 Stat. 209), the word “useful” is added to the last phrase, so that it reads, “or any new, useful, and original shape or configuration” and the benefit of the statute was extended to “any person,” instead of “any citizen.” Smith v. Whitman Saddle Co., supra, was based upon this 1870 section.
The present section 4929 was enacted in 1902. U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3398. By its terms “any person who has invented any new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture * * * may, * * * obtdin a patent therefor.” It will thus be seen that the device sought to be patented must be new and ornamental. The statutes of 1842 and 1870 do not in terms require that the design shall be ornamental, although under the former a design patent might issue for an ornament under certain conditions, and in Smith v. Whitman Saddle Company, the court, speaking of the act of 1870, says the first three classes named “plainly refer to ornament or to ornament and utility.” It should be noted that the act of 1902 has but one class.

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Bluebook (online)
180 F. 412, 103 C.C.A. 558, 1910 U.S. App. LEXIS 4777, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bolte-weyer-co-v-knight-light-co-ca7-1910.