G. B. Lewis Co. v. Gould Products, Inc.

297 F. Supp. 690, 160 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 311, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12367
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedAugust 12, 1968
DocketNo. 67 C 63
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 297 F. Supp. 690 (G. B. Lewis Co. v. Gould Products, Inc.) 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
G. B. Lewis Co. v. Gould Products, Inc., 297 F. Supp. 690, 160 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 311, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12367 (E.D.N.Y. 1968).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

DOOLING, District Judge.

Plaintiffs sue upon the defendant’s alleged infringement of United States Design Patent No. Des. 191,144, issued to Gunther Schanz on August 15, 1961, upon his application filed June 17, 1959. The defendant moves for summary judgment on the issues of validity and infringement and defendant’s motion must be granted.

The design originated with Sehanz’s filing on April 26, 1958, in Germany of Gebrauchsmuster (Utility Model, or petty, patent) No. 1,776,367, issued October 26, 1958, on a storage box of plastic adapted for stacking, with front visibility and removal opening for the box contents. This first Utility patent disclosed every design feature of plaintiff’s later United States patent except for one, later mentioned. The first Utility patent described and illustrated a rectangular open topped plastic box the front wall of which rose only to half the height of the box; the low front wall rose vertically a short distance, then was inclined outwardly (forwardly) for about three times the length of its vertical rise, and ended in a second, very short vertical rise; the top, vertical segment of the front wall was extended vertically downward to form a skirt across the entire front of the box which joined the extended sidewalls of the box at either side. A wedge-shaped inverted pocket was thus formed at the front of the box; the pocket could serve as a finger hold or drawerpull for the box. On the front of the box, on the vertical segment, an oblong frame, open at the top, was molded to accommodate a slide-in label. The top edges of the other three walls of the box were crimped outwardly to form a low outwardly offset wall segment such in dimensions that one box could be securely set on top of another in snug fit and without sideward or rearward movement. Vertical ribs were formed against the outside of the side and rear walls, running from the outwardly crimped tops at least to the bottom of the box and, preferably, below it to form feet. The claims of the Utility patent as filed in (apparently) May 1958 are upon structure, not upon configuration in the sense of aesthetically satisfying design. However, the claims embrace as characterizing features (in a plastic storage box adapted for stacking and having a front visibility and removal opening and a front handle) the vertical exterior ribs, the downward opening pocket across the front formed through sidewall extensions joining the inclined [692]*692front wall and vertical front surface, the label frame, and the vertical rise at the foot of the front wall (to equal the vertical extent of the crimp at the upper edge of the side and rear walls). Each feature is functional; no feature is described as ornamental; the external vertical ribs are wall reinforcement and intended to give one box, when stacked atop another, a secure foothold on the crimped ledge of the lower box; the structure of the front is for visibility, access and handhold ; and the label frame is purely utilitarian. While design divorced from utility is not claimed for the structure, the specific structure is precisely claimed, and such “design” as the box has is claimed at least insofar as it is implicit in the structure claimed.

Between the filing and issuance of the first Utility patent Schanz registered, effective May 27, 1958, the design of the box of the first Utility patent as an industrial design under the Law of January 11, 1876, as amended. Such a registration, spoken of as a Gesehmacksmuster, may be granted for an initial term of one to three years from date of filing, and the “author” has the right to request (as, in 1961, Schanz did request) that the term of protection be prolonged to a maximum of fifteen years. See Section 8. Compare 35' U.S.C. § 173 (authorizing design patents of 3^» 7 or 14 year terms at the patentee’s election). The Law of January 11, 1876, protects the “authors” of “industrial designs” which are embodied in “new and original products” against “imitation” (Nachbildung) of their designs, and the remedial and punitive provisions of the copyright law are incorporated into the Law of January 11, 1876, with certain exceptions. Compare 17 U.S.C. § 5(g), (i), 37 C.F.R. §§ 202.10, 202.12; 35 U.S.C. § 171, 37 C.F.R. § 1.153(a).

On December 23, 1958, Schanz filed for and on April 2, 1959, there was issued Utility patent No. 1,786,384. The innovation claimed for this second storage box over the first Utility patent (No. 1,-776,367) was greater stability, reinforcement and strength at the front parts of the sidewalls and at the junction points of the sidewalls with the front wall through positioning “between the vertical gripping ledge and the front wall of the box, halfway inclined forward, a horizontal wall surface, or * * * ledge or the like, connecting its upper ledges with one another, which is to be as broad as possible and preferably double as broad as the edge strip of the sidewalls, outwardly recessed through crimping, on both sides of the removal opening.” The second Utility patent differed from the first only in broadening the top edge of the front half-wall into a horizontal “lying wall” surface and eliminating the very short vertical rise at the upper end of the front half-wall of the first Utility patent. As the application for No. 1,786,384 states, the slope of the front wall is^ steepened toward the vertical, and, as the application also notes, the horizontal or lying wall surface may be curved or may be rounded into the front wall or the gripping ledge. Utility patent No. 1,786,384 claims (in a plastic storage box adapted for stacking which has a front visibility and removal opening and a gripping ledge extending downward from the lower edge of the removal opening and from sidewall to sidewall) the horizontal lying wall between the gripping ledge and the front half-wall, the lying wall to be, preferably, twice the width of outward crimp displacement of the top edge of the sidewalls. (Utility patent No. 1,786,384 does not exhibit the label frame.)

It does not appear that a Geschmacksmuster was sought or obtained for the design differences that the second Utility patent presented.

Schanz filed for his United States design patent on June 17, 1959, supplying a single perspective figure exhibiting the right side and front of the box and a part of the interior; the figure did not disclose the structure in back of the vertical handhold member across the front; the specification is not descriptive, but it refers to the figure for all details of design ; a captious eye could insist that the figure does not disclose — nor the appli[693]*693cation claim — an inclined front wall. In the oath Schanz said that the “design has not been patented in any country * * on an application filed by me * * * more than six months before this application; and that no application for patent on this design has been filed by me * * * in any country * * * except * * * No. 1,786,384, filed December 23, 1958, the priority of which is hereby claimed, 35 U.S.C. 119.” The Utility patent, No. 1,786,384, was filed as “the priority document” on July 15, 1959.

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Bluebook (online)
297 F. Supp. 690, 160 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 311, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12367, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/g-b-lewis-co-v-gould-products-inc-nyed-1968.