Duerr v. Potts

90 F.2d 117, 24 C.C.P.A. 1198, 33 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 534, 1937 CCPA LEXIS 116
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedMay 29, 1937
DocketNo. 3710
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 90 F.2d 117 (Duerr v. Potts) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Duerr v. Potts, 90 F.2d 117, 24 C.C.P.A. 1198, 33 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 534, 1937 CCPA LEXIS 116 (ccpa 1937).

Opinion

Hatiteld, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal in an interference proceeding from the decision of the Board of Appeals of the United States Patent Office affirming the decision of the Examiner of Interferences awarding priority of the invention defined by appealed counts 5, 6, and 7, to appellee.

[1199]*1199Tlie interference is between appellants’ patent No. 1,880,906, issued October 4, 1932, on an application filed July 9,1931, and appel-lee’s application, Serial No. 529,268, filed April 10, 1931, for reissue of patent No. 1,708,954, issued April 16, 1929, on an application filed September 17, 1925.

Count 5 is illustrative of the appealed counts. It reads:

Count 5. In a telegraph system, a multiples system terminating at a main station, a simplex system also terminating at said main station, means for transmitting corresponding marking and spacing conditions over said simplex! system when marking and spacing conditions are received over said multiplex system, and means for applying marking conditions only to the simplex system when spacing conditions only are received over the multiplex system.

It appears from the record that an interference was declared on April 13, 1933, involving four counts, 1 to 4, inclusive; that the counts originated in appellants’ patent; and that, on July 25, 1933, counsel for appellants moved to dissolve the interference as to counts 1 and 2 on the ground that appellee could not make them.

On July 26,1933', appellee filed a motion to add to the interference claims in appellants’ application corresponding to counts 5, 6. and 7, here involved. On August 18, 1933, appellee filed a supplemental motion to add such counts, and stated therein how, in his opinion, the involved counts read on his disclosure.

Appellants’ motion to dissolve the interference as to counts 1 and 2, and appellee’s motion to add thereto counts 5, 6, and 7 were set for hearing on November 6, 1933.

On March 17, 1934, the Examiner of Interferences denied appellants’ motion to dissolve as to counts 1 and 2, and granted appellee’s motion to amend the interference by adding counts 5, 6, and 7.

In granting appellee’s motion to amend, the examiner said:

Each of the proposed counts A, B and C is found to read on the Potts disclosure as applied thereto by the moving party. As no brief has been filed in opposition to this motion, it is deemed necessary [unnecessary] to discuss it in detail.

On June 12,1934, the interference was reformed by the addition of the involved counts — 5, 6, and 7.

As the date alleged in appellants’ second preliminary statement for conception of the invention defined by the involved counts was subsequent to the filing date of appellee, appellants, on August 7, 1934, were ordered to show cause, on or before September 7, 1934, why judgment on the record should not be entered against them as to counts 5, 6, and 7, a similar order having been previously entered-as to counts 1, 2, 3, and 4.

In response to the order to show cause, appellants, on September 7, 1934, filed a motion to dissolve the interference as to all of the counts in issue — 1 to 7 inclusive. As to the counts here involved— [1200]*12005, 6, and 7, appellants set forth the decision of the Primary Examiner holding that appellee could not make them, and argued that the-decision of the Primary Examiner was correct. The motion also contains an argument as to why the interference should be dissolved as to all of the counts in issue, because of the inoperativeness of appellee’s device.

On September 13, 1934, appellants’ motion to dissolve was dismissed. In his decision, the Examiner of Interferences stated:

Counts 5, 6 and 7 were added to the issue by motions under Rule 109. According to paragraph 2 of said rule, motions to dissolve with regard toadded claims will not be considered where questions raised could have been disposed of in connection with the admission of the claims. Obviously any proper question sought to be raised by Duerr and Broyles’ motion to dissolve filed September 7, 1934, could have been disposed of in connection with the admission of the claims as the result of Potts’ motions to add counts.

Thereupon, the Examiner of Interferences awarded priority of invention to appellee as to all the counts then in issue — 1 to 7, inclusive.

On September 14, 1934, counsel for appellants filed a motion requesting that the decision of the Examiner of Interferences be set aside, and a rehearing granted.

The motion to reopen was set for hearing on October 3, 1934, and, a hearing having been had, ivas denied by the Examiner of Interferences on October 8, 1934.

Thereafter, appellants requested reconsideration of their motion to reopen, and consideration of their motion to dissolve. That request was denied by the Examiner of Interferences on November 2, 1934. Thereupon, on November 3, 1934, an appeal was taken to the Board of Appeals, and, on the same day, appellants petitioned the Commissioner of Patents to exercise his supervisory authority and restore jurisdiction to the Examiner of Interferences for the purpose of permitting them to take testimony relative to the alleged inopera-tiveness of appellee’s device.

On December 14, 1934, the commissioner denied appellant’s petition.

On March 12, 1935, a little over four months after appellants had taken the appeal to the Board of Appeals, they filed notice of a statutory bar.

In its decision, the board, citing rule 130 of the Buies of Practice in the United States Patent Office, refused to- consider the allegations contained in the notice of a statutory bar, because the notice was filed too late and concerned a matter which had not theretofore been considered in the record. The board held that appellee was not entitled to make counts 1 and 2, then in issue, and stated that [1201]*1201the motion to dissolve as to those counts should have been granted. With reference to counts 5, 6, and 7, the board said:

Previously and within the proper motion period, Potts had moved to add proposed claims A, B and O as counts 5, 6 and 7. This motion had been granted at the time the above motion of Duerr et al. as to counts 1 and 2 had been denied. Duerr et al. did not oppose the new counts at the time they were proposed but after the Examiner had issued an additional order to show cause in respect to these new counts, Duerr et al. presented a motion to dissolve with respect to them — paper 21. It was held by the Examiner of Interferences that such questions should have been disposed of in connection with the arguments on motions to amend with respect to these proposed counts 5, 6 and 7. The Duerr et al. motion in respect to counts 5, 6 and 7 was accordingly not set for hearing and was dismissed by the Examiner of Interferences — paper 22. It appears therefore that under the practice of Rule 130, any contentions as to counts 5, 6 and 7 are not properly before us,for consideration since this matter was never presented by timely motion or treated on its merits or decision rendered with respect thereto by the Examiner of Interferences.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Engelbrecht v. Rogers
148 F.2d 102 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1945)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
90 F.2d 117, 24 C.C.P.A. 1198, 33 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 534, 1937 CCPA LEXIS 116, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/duerr-v-potts-ccpa-1937.