Home/First Circuit/Economic Machinery Co. v. Berry

Economic Machinery Co. v. Berry

214 F. 354, 131 C.C.A. 130, 1914 U.S. App. LEXIS 1147
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedApril 24, 1914
DocketNo. 1018
StatusPublished

This text of 214 F. 354 (Economic Machinery Co. v. Berry) 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
Economic Machinery Co. v. Berry, 214 F. 354, 131 C.C.A. 130, 1914 U.S. App. LEXIS 1147 (1st Cir. 1914).

Opinion

[355]*355The following is the opinion of the District Court, by

Colt, Circuit Judge:

This suit is brought for infringement of three patents for labeling machines for affixing labels to bottles and similar articles: The Gaynor patent, No. 705,832, dated July 29, 1902; the Woodland patent, No. 937,403, dated October 19, 1909; the Woodland patent, No. 941,178, dated November 23, 1909. The application for the first Woodland patent was filed April 24, 1903, and for the second Woodland patent March 10, 1904.
The claims in issue are as follows: Claim 1 of the Gaynor patent; claims 4, 6, 12, 36, 52, 53, 56, 59, of the first Woodland patent; claims 6, 10, 11, 27, 30, 31, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 5S, 59, 60, 67, 71, of the second Woodland patent.
The defendants’ machine is shown and described in two patents granted to Edward Ermold and numbered, respectively, 923,501 and 950,259. 'The application for the first of these Ermold patents was filed July 23, 1908, and the patent granted June 1, 1909; and the application for the second Ermold patent was filed August 7, 1909, and the patent granted February 22, 1910.
The complainant called a single expert witness, and also Mr. Woodland, who testified as to the building df one machine in accordance with the first Woodland patent, and the date of its construction.
The defendants called a single expert witness, and also introduced in evidence 36 patents illustrating the prior art. Of these patents some 24 relate to labeling machines for affixing labels to bottles and similar articles.
With respect to this testimony it may be here noted that, in a case involving the construction of 25 claims in 3 patents in a highly developed art, the evidence is substantially confined.to the contradictory views of two experts, and that no practical witnesses familiar with the art have been called to testify as to the relative utility, efficiency, and commercial value of the machines of the patent in suit as compared with the machines of the-prior art. The evidence also fails to disclose, except as to some details, any satisfactory examination and analysis of the mechanism embodied in the defendants’ machine.
A labeling machine for attaching labels to bottles and similar articles may be said to consist, as a general rule, of six groups of instrumentalities:
(1) The label box for holding the labels, and, if the box is movable, mechanism for actuating it.
(2) Picker devices for taking the labels one by one from the box and bringing them to the bottle, and mechanism for actuating these devices.
(3) Pasting rolls for applying paste to the pickers in order to enable the pickers to attach themselves to a label and remove it from the box, and mechanism for actuating these devices.
(4) A grip finger or clamping device for holding the label to the bottle while it is being detached from the pickers, and mechanism for actuating this device.
(5) Wipers for wiping the label over the bottle after it has been detached from the pickers, and mechanism for actuating these devices.
(6) The bottle rest against which the bottle lies while receiving its label.
These instrumentalities are brought into operation in the machine in- the following order:
First. The pickers receive their coating of paste.
Second. The pickers are brought into contact with a label in the label box.
Third. The label is brought to the bottle. .
Fourth. The grip finger holds the label to the bottle while the pickers dé-tach themselves from the label.
Fifth. The wipers wipe the label upon the bottle.
A machine which embodies these instrumentalities and this cycle of operations necessarily comprises many parts, and these parts must be so constructed and arranged as not to interfere with each other in the operation of the machine.
Speaking generally, these machines may be divided into three types: The horizontal type, where the parts are arranged in horizontal alignment; the vertical type, where the parts are arranged in vertical alignment; and the mixed type, where the parts are arranged partly in horizontal and partly in [356]*356vertical alignment — and each of these types presents a different problem with respect to the construction and adjustment of these several parts and the mechanism adapted to actuate these parts.
Again, within each of these types there is still left a wide field for diversity in the arrangement of the several parts, in the mechanism employed to actuate these parts, and in the specific mechanism for each separate part.
The Gaynor patent in suit, No. 705,832, is for a machine of the vertical type and designed to affix two labels to a bottle. It is for improvements upon a prior patented machine of the same type by the same inventor. The patent says:
“The object of this invention is to provide a simple and easily-operated machine for affixing labels to bottles, cans, and the like, and especially a plurality of labels simultaneously to the neck and body of the bottle; and the new features' thereof consist of improvements upon the machine shown and described in the patent for a ‘labeling-machine’ granted to me on the 10th day of December, 1901.
“One important feature of novelty in the machine herein shown and described' is a label-holder; that is, means for holding the label centrally lengthwise of the bottle against the under side of the bottle while the label-carrying plates are moving away from the label and the label is being affixed to the bottle. Such means is so moved and controlled that it moves from the side into a position between the label-support and the label-carrying plates and bottle above and follows the same upward until the bottle is stopped, when it engages the labels centrally on the under side of the bottle and holds them while being affixed.”
Figures 1 and 8 of the patent show the Gaynor machine and the “label-holder” or grip finger:

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Bluebook (online)
214 F. 354, 131 C.C.A. 130, 1914 U.S. App. LEXIS 1147, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/economic-machinery-co-v-berry-ca1-1914.