Bragg-Kliesrath Corp. v. Walter S. Vogel & Co.

3 F. Supp. 518, 1933 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1650
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedMay 3, 1933
DocketNo. 6524
StatusPublished

This text of 3 F. Supp. 518 (Bragg-Kliesrath Corp. v. Walter S. Vogel & 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
Bragg-Kliesrath Corp. v. Walter S. Vogel & Co., 3 F. Supp. 518, 1933 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1650 (E.D.N.Y. 1933).

Opinion

CAMPBELL, District Judge.

This is a suit in equity for the alleged infringement of patent No. 1,321,159, issued to Howard C. Root, assignor to the Prest-oLite Company, Inc., for controlling valve for vacuum-operated power means, granted November 11,1919, on an application filed May 9, 1917.

The defendant has by answer interposed the defenses of invalidity and noninfringement.

The plaintiff has title by mesne assignments to the patent in suit, and notice was given to the defendant.

The plaintiff is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the state of New York, with its factory and principal place of business at South Bend, Ind., and engaged in the manufacture and sale throughout the United States of vacuum brakes for automotive road vehicles, under the Root patent in suit.

The defendant is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the state of New York, with its principal place of business at No. 3104 Northern boulevard, Long Island City, within this judicial district, in which district the alleged acts of infringement were committed.

The defendant is a distributor of the alleged infringing vacuum brake apparatus, which apparatus, sold by the defendant, is known as the Besler vacuum brake, and is manufactured by Engineering Productions, Inc., of Emeryville, Cal., and distributed for the entire United States by Lathan Company, Incorporated, of San Francisco, Cal.

The patent in suit was adjudicated in this court in the action brought by the plaintiff on both the Dickson patent, No. 1,076,198, and the patent in suit, in Bragg-Kliesrath Corporation v. Farrell (D. C.) 32 F.(2d) 266, and affirmed by the Circuit Court of Appeals of this circuit, 36 F.(2d) 845.

In the case last cited, the District Court held the patent in suit valid but not infringed. This was affirmed on appeal by a majority of the Circuit Court of Appeals; Circuit Judge Learned Hand, in a dissenting opinion, holding claim 2 of the patent in suit also infringed.

The patent in suit has had great commercial success.

The plaintiff’s predecessors Fisher and Allison first operated under the Dickson patent, supra, which called for an “additional and somewhat delicate movement” releasing the “foot button or hand throttle lever” in order to hold the brakes “after being slightly applied.”

The patent in suit is an improvement to overcome that shortcoming of Dickson.

Circuit Judge Mack, on said appeal, at page 847 of 36 F.(2d), after describing the operation of the Dickson patent No. 1,076,-198, said:

“In the Dickson device the brakes could not be held, after having been slightly applied, unless the three-way valve was returned a short distance toward the open position, thus cutting off both the suction and the air from the brake cylinder, and thereby holding the piston in the position to which it had been moved. This required that the foot button or hand throttle lever be slightly released by the operator every time he desired to hold the brake. Root’s patent eliminated this additional and somewhat delicate movement by providing a valve which was automatically closed by a movement of the piston and which held the vacuum until the suction was again introduced or air admitted to the brake cylinder. This result was achieved by using a follow-up element, 21, which was actuated by the piston itself, through a lever 22, so that when the suction was introduced and the piston moved, it automatically moved the follow-up slide to cover the suction aperture and hold the brake. Any additional movement of the foot button or hand lever (which are not shown by Root but which are adaptable to his device) would repeat this operation until the maximum braking effect had been obtained.”

The instant suit is based on claims 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the patent in suit, which read as follows:

“1. A valve mechanism for fluid medium operated power applying means having a manually controlled valve member operable to control the communication between the source of power and the said means, and between the same and the atmosphere and a supplementary automatic cut-off valve member associated with the first valve member and operable immediately of the power applying and return actuations .of the manually controlled valve, to cut off the communication between said source and power means.

“2. In a vacuum operated power applying means, in combination with a cylinder and a power applying piston movable therein, means of communication between said cylinder on one side of the piston and a source [520]*520of suction, valve means for controlling the suction communication to establish a vacuum on said side of the cylinder, means controlled by said valve for establishing communication between the cylinder and the atmosphere and means automatically operable by the piston for cutting off communication from the suction line to the cylinder.

“3. In a vacuum operated power applying means, in combination with a cylinder and a power piston movable therein, means for operating a vacuum on one side of said piston, valve means for controlling the creation of said vacuum and automatic cut-off valve means operable mechanically by the operating movement of the piston and between the cylinder and the vacuum creating means to proportionately interrupt the communication.

“4. In a vacuum operated power applying means, in combination with a cylinder having communication with a source of suction adapted to establish a vacuum in said cylinder, a power applying piston movable in said cylinder valve means controlling communication between said source and cylinder and between the latter and the atmosphere, means for manually operating said valve means, cut-off valve means having operative mechanical connection with the piston and controlling communication between said source and the cylinder, and means for operating said cut-off valve, means to decrease or interrupt said communication between the power applying and return actuations of the said controlling valve.”

The patent in suit shows a main valve 12, and a supplementary valve 19, 22, operated by a piston which follows up the movement of valve 12 and cuts off the suction.

If the valve 12 is moved somewhat further, it reapplies the suction, causes the piston to move still further, and the follow-up valve moves just sufficiently to cut off the suction again. The movement of one is proportionate to that of the other.

Although it seems to me that defendant does not contend that the patent in suit, as construed by this court and the Circuit Court of Appeals, is invalid, it introduced the alleged prior art patents with a view to limit the construction of the claims of the patent in suit so as not to cover defendant’s structure, I will now consider the prior art at some length.

Patent No. 88,431, to Atkins. — This patent has for its stated purpose, with others, operating the rudder to steer a ship, handling heavy guns and other ponderous masses, controlling the link motion of steam engines, operating iron planing machines, and controlling throttle valves of steam engines. It is to be operated by pressure. The piston is stationary, held to the frame of the machine, the cylinder moves, and there is a piston valve at the top.

From the drawings it appears that the width of the laps in the piston valve is exactly the same as the width of the port; thus there is no overlap.

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Related

Bragg-Kliesrath Corporation v. Farrell
36 F.2d 845 (Second Circuit, 1929)
Westinghouse v. Boyden Power Brake Co.
170 U.S. 537 (Supreme Court, 1898)
Lamson Co. v. G. & G. Atlas Systems, Inc.
14 F.2d 22 (Second Circuit, 1926)
Bragg-Kliesrath Corp. v. Farrell
32 F.2d 266 (E.D. New York, 1929)
Cincinnati Car Co. v. New York Rapid Transit Corp.
35 F.2d 679 (Second Circuit, 1929)
Arthur Colton Co. v. McKesson & Robbins, Inc.
58 F.2d 157 (Second Circuit, 1932)

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Bluebook (online)
3 F. Supp. 518, 1933 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1650, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bragg-kliesrath-corp-v-walter-s-vogel-co-nyed-1933.