Delamere Company v. Taylor-Bell Co.

249 F. Supp. 471, 148 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 368, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10343
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJanuary 4, 1966
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 249 F. Supp. 471 (Delamere Company v. Taylor-Bell Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Delamere Company v. Taylor-Bell Co., 249 F. Supp. 471, 148 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 368, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10343 (S.D.N.Y. 1966).

Opinion

BONSAL, District Judge.

Plaintiff, Delamere Company, Inc. (Delamere), a Delaware corporation, brings this action against Taylor-Bell Co., Inc. (Taylor-Bell), a New York corporation, for a declaratory judgment declaring that Taylor-Bell’s patent No. 2,842,140 issued on July 8, 1958 is invalid and has not been infringed by Dela-mere, and that Delamere is not competing unfairly with Taylor-Bell. In addition, Delamere seeks damages against Taylor-Bell for its alleged malicious interference with Delamere’s business relations and an award of counsel fees. Taylor-Bell has counterclaimed for patent *473 infringement and unfair competition and has joined as a cross-claim defendant F. W. Woolworth Company (Woolworth), a New York corporation. 1 Charles C. Schwartz, who claims an 8% interest in the patent, was joined as a party but no claim is asserted against him; he has asserted no claim and he did not participate in the trial. The case was tried on October 15 and 18,1965.

The patent in suit was applied for on September 16, 1954 by Carl Louis Otto and LaNelle Burnham Otto and was issued to Caronelle, Inc. (Caronelle) on July 8, 1958. The patent application and all rights thereunder were assigned by the Ottos to Caronelle on December 16, 1954. The assignment of an 8% interest in the patent application was made to Schwartz by Caronelle on February 4, 1957. On January 4, 1960, Caronelle assigned its interest in the patent to Taylor-Bell.

The issues to be decided are: (1) whether the patent in suit is valid, (2) whether Delamere’s “Goody” curlers infringe the patent, (3) whether Dela-mere competed unfairly with Taylor-Bell by its use of the colors pink and white in the marketing of its “Goody” hair curlers, (4) whether Taylor-Bell is liable for malicious interference with Dela-mere’s business relations, and (5) whether Delamere is entitled to an award of counsel fees.

Validity of the Patent

The court is called upon at the outset to decide upon the validity of the patent at suit. Sinclair & Carroll Co. v. Inter-chemical Corp., 325 U.S. 327, 65 S.Ct. 1143, 89 L.Ed. 1644 (1945). Twenty-one claims are listed in the patent, of which numbers 2, 4, 5, 17 and 18 have been put at issue by Taylor-Bell. Claim 17 is typical. It provides for:

“A hair curling device embodying a substantially cylindrical core member comprising elastically resilient porous, sponge-like, non-metallic plastic material adapted to have a tress of hair wound therearound and to be radially compressed by the tress of hair so wound therearound, and a retaining member associated with said core member and having a portion comprising separate substantially parallel fingers adapted to extend longitudinally of the length of said core member and exteriorly thereof and over the tress of hair wound thereon to retain the latter in place and at least one additional longitudinally extending finger adapted to locate it to engage said core member to hold the first mentioned fingers in place, and an end portion for joining the aforesaid several finger portions together at the end of the device.”

The other claims contain slight variations. Claim 2 requires that either the core or the retaining member be resiliently yieldable, but does not specify which one. There are variations in wording as to the manner in which the retaining member is engaged to the core. Each claim requires, however, that the retaining member have at least two substantially parallel fingers extending over the core and an additional finger or portion adapted to engage the core.

These claims do not limit the retaining member to one designed to be forced longitudinally over the core member nor to one where there is a narrow gap between the fingers extending over the core. However, the specifications make clear that the claims are to be so construed. The claims of a patent must be read in light of the specifications. Schriber-Schroth Co. v. Cleveland Trust Co., 311 U.S. 211, 312 U.S. 654, 61 S.Ct. 235, 85 L.Ed. 132 (1940); Western States Mach. Co. v. S. S. Hepworth Co., 147 F.2d 345 (2d Cir. 1945); Carl Braun, Inc. v. Kendall-Lamar Corp., 116 F.2d 663 (2d Cir. 1941). Thus narrowed, the *474 court must determine the validity of the Taylor-Bell patent 2

Taylor-Bell contends that its patent, although a combination of elements known to the prior art, combines those elements so as to produce a new, useful and unexpected result. Taylor-Bell maintains that the heart of the invention is the combination of a resilient core, which is compressed by the tresses wound around it and which maintains the hair under tension, and a retaining member with parallel fingers which holds the tress in position and under tension. Although conceding that the concepts of a sponge-like cylindrical core and of a three-pronged retaining member are not new, Taylor-Bell argues that the combination producing the tension is new and patentable.

Delamere argues that the Taylor-Bell patent is invalid for want of invention. Delamere contends that the elements combined in the Taylor-Bell patent produce no new or unexpected results and, alternatively, that the alleged invention is \fully anticipated by the prior art or that any improvements made over that art would-have been obvious at the time of the invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art. 3

Taylor-Bell correctly concedes that the two elements of its patent are not in themselves new or patentable. Soft resilient cores around which hair is wound are old in the art of hair curlers. The three-pronged retaining member itself is not novel (See M. D. Avillar, Patent No. 1,245,173 issued Nov. 6, 1917).

Taylor-Bell’s claim is thus limited to the combination of these two items which it argues produces. a new, useful and unexpected result. The test for judging the validity of combination patents was laid down by the Supreme Court in Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Supermarket Equipment Corp., 340 U. S. 147, 71 S.Ct. 127, 95 L.Ed. 162 (1950). There the claimed invention was a “cashier’s counter equipped with a three-sided frame, or rack, with no top or bottom, *475 which, when pushed or pulled, will move groceries deposited within it by a customer to the checking clerk and leave them there when it is pushed back to repeat the operation.” After finding that none of the elements of the combination were new, the court held the combination un-patentable for want of invention. In stating the proper test for patentability of a combination of old elements, the court said, at page 152, 71 S.Ct. at page 130:

“The conjunction or concert of known elements must contribute something; only when the whole in some way exceeds the sum of its parts is the accumulation of old devices patentable.

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249 F. Supp. 471, 148 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 368, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10343, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/delamere-company-v-taylor-bell-co-nysd-1966.