Grosjean v. Panther-Panco Rubber Co.

113 F.2d 252, 46 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 160, 1940 U.S. App. LEXIS 3339
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedJune 24, 1940
DocketNo. 3508
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 113 F.2d 252 (Grosjean v. Panther-Panco Rubber Co.) 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
Grosjean v. Panther-Panco Rubber Co., 113 F.2d 252, 46 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 160, 1940 U.S. App. LEXIS 3339 (1st Cir. 1940).

Opinion

FORD, District Judge.

This is an appeal from a decree of the District Court dismissing a bill of complaint after holding invalid patents issued to the plaintiff James E. Grosjean, and denying claims contained in the bill for infringement of United States Trade Mark Registration Nos. 149,142 (December 6, 1921), 285,219 (July 21, 1931) and unfair competition.

Two patents are involved in the present appeal. These are United States patent No. 1,687,441, issued October 9, 1928 (hereinafter referred to as the 1928 patent), and No. 1,650,511, issued November 22, 1927 (hereinafter referred to as the 1927 patent). Title to these patents is admitted to be in the original plaintiffs, James E. Grosjean, Pearl G. Maire and Fred W. Cook. The Lima Cord Sole and Heel Company, founded by the plaintiff Grosjean (hereinafter referred to as the Lima Company), was made a plaintiff as owner of the exclusive license under the patents and, because of the death of the plaintiff Grosjean shortly before trial, the other plaintiffs, Nannie A. Grosjean and Pearl G. Maire, as executrices, were substituted. The defendant is a Massachusetts corporation with its principal place of business in Chelsea, Massachusetts.

The patents relate to shoe soles and heels and involve the use of cords or threads in rubber compound and particularly cords on end which are embedded in the rubber at right angles to the wearing or tread surface so that the ends and not the sides of the cords take the wear.

The 1928 Patent (1,687,441).

This patent describes a tread material for shoes and the method for making the same. The objects of the invention, the specification states, were to provide a novel and improved inexpensive material which possessed tough and wear-resisting properties adapted for use in making soles and to provide a method whereby such material could be produced from the trimmings or waste incident to the manufacture of cord and fabric tires for automobiles, such trimmings or waste usually consisting of scraps or remnants of strips of cord or fabric stock having the cords thereof impregnated with uncured “friction” or high grade rubber cement and the assembled cords covered by a thin coating of uncured rubber. This waste product from the automobile tires is called “friction scrap” — textile material coated with rubber. The patentee further states, “the present invention enables masses of such trimmings or refuse having the cords extending promiscuously therein, to be treated in a manner which will re-arrange the cords so that most of them extend in the same direction in a sheet produced from such mass; and such sheet having the cords so arranged therein, after being cut, shaped or otherwise formed according to the tread surface or other article to be made therefrom, is cured, as the result of which the friction and rubber associated with the cords are vulcanized, thus strongly uniting the cords and producing a material which possesses great strength, toughness and wear-resisting properties”.

A mass of such waste material in which the cords extend promiscuously is passed through a “cracker” such as is used in tire factories for tearing apart new rubber. A “cracker” is a machine with large corrugated rolls rotating at different speeds. It is ordinarily used to perform the first operation on baled rubber. It changes the bale form into a rough sheet, at the same time washing out certain impurities. The cracker has the effect of rearranging the cords in the material so that they will extend mostly in the same direction, longitudinally with the mass. As a result of the cracking operation a sheet is produced with the cords extending in the same direction, longitudinally with the sheet. The passage of the sheet through the cracker is repeated a sufficient number of times to produce the desired thickness. The sheet of material is then passed through smooth rolls (a calender) and reduced to a uniform thickness. By this latter process thp cords are also more nearly made to extend in the same direction, longitudinally with the sheet. The sheet then is cut across the cords into strips and assembled so that the cords are presented on end. As the specification states : “the strips cut in this way are then assembled * * * so that their cut edges will form the front and back of the tread or sole in consequence of which the [254]*254ends of the threads will be presented to the surfaces of the structure, either or both of which may be utilized as -a wear surface”, When the sole is constructed from these 'strips it is vulcanized. This produces the finished sole.

There are three claims in this patent and' all are in suit. Claim 1, a method claim, is as follows:

1. The method of making a tread surface which comprises subjecting a mass of uncured waste cord or fabric tire stock consisting wholly of uncured friction coated and impregnated cords extending promiscuously therein to a drawing action to rearrange the cords so that most of them are •caused to extend in the same direction and .to distribute the cords loosely and uniformly while maintaining the cords of substantial length, rolling the resulting product to form it into a smooth sided sheet having most of the cords extending longitudinally thereof, cutting suc.h sheet transversely to form strips, assembling said strips side by side so that most of the cords therein extend m the same direction m all the strips and to. form a tread wherein most of the cords are presented endwise to the tread surface, and vulcanizing the assembled sh-ips to bond together elastically the fríetion coated and impregnated cords compos-mg them and to unite the strips.

Claims 2 and 3 are directed to the finished product. Claim 2 is for a “sheet of material” of the character described, and claim 3 is for a “tread for boots and shoes”.

The 1927 Patent (1,650,511).

The 1927 patent is for a heel or tread member for boots and shoes made from the material obtained by the method discussed in the 1928 patent. The specification of this patent is very similar to that of the 1928 patent. *

The material is put through a cracker and following this,' it is put through smooth faced rolls in order to rearrange the promiscuously extending cords in the same direction. The material is then forced through a so-called tube machine, such as that commonly used in plants producing rubber products in order to produce a strip of material having the cords, threads, or fibers, extending longitudinally with the strip. Sections of the strip are then cut off on lines transverse to the lengths of the cords to form the tread bodies'for the heels, An upper body of the same shape as the .tread body is cut from the sheet as it comes from the smooth faced rolls and superimposed on the tread body. In this element the cords or fibers are substantially parallel and it serves as a backing for the tread porfion of the heel. After superimposing the two bodies a border of rubber compound is placed around the two bodies an<i the whole is placed in a mold and vulcanized to form the completed heel.

Claims 1, 2 and 4, all product claims, of the 1927 patent, are in suit. Claims 1 and 2 are directed .to a rubber heel or tread member having the tread forming body composed of loose fibers with their ends presented endwise to the treád surface, Claim 4 discloses, in addition to a lower tread forming body, an upper body superimposed on it, which the patentee asserts is a nail holding body,

The Lima Company has been manufacturi cord_on.end soles with commercial suctess for a t From its begi„ning in 1920 it made cord-on-end soles from n£w materiaI or n£w friction.

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113 F.2d 252, 46 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 160, 1940 U.S. App. LEXIS 3339, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grosjean-v-panther-panco-rubber-co-ca1-1940.