Gross v. General Motors Corporation

390 F. Supp. 236
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedJanuary 13, 1975
DocketCiv. A. 69-334-J
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 390 F. Supp. 236 (Gross v. General Motors Corporation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gross v. General Motors Corporation, 390 F. Supp. 236 (D. Mass. 1975).

Opinion

OPINION

JULIAN, Senior District Judge.

Plaintiff claims that the defendant infringed his patent. He seeks injunctive relief and damages. Defendant denies infringement and also challenges the validity of the patent. In its counterclaim defendant prays for a declaratory judgment declaring plaintiff’s patent not infringed, and invalid, and unenforceable, and for injunctive relief.

After trial on the merits the Court finds the following facts.

Plaintiff, Thomas A. O. Gross, is a citizen of the United States who resides in Lincoln, Massachusetts. He owns U. S. Patent No. 3,047,040, entitled “Pneumatic Load Bearing Devices,” a copy of which is Exhibit 31 in this case. The defendant, General Motors Corporation, is a Delaware corporation having its principal place of business in Detroit, Michigan, and a regular and established place of business at 30 St. James Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts.

U. S. Patent No. 3,047,040 was issued to the plaintiff on July 31, 1962. Plaintiff’s complaint as amended at trial (Tr. p. 3-95) alleges that defendant has infringed claims 1, 2 and 4 of his patent. The claims provide as follows:

“1. A pneumatic yieldable load bearing device comprising an enclosed container having wall portions movable and effective to vary the volume of the container, said portions supporting a load tending to move said portions, and a gas within said container, said gas being under a pressure effective to support said load and having a ratio of Cp/Cv of no more than about 1.25 and being uncondensible at temperatures and pressures within the container encountered during normal operation of the device.
“2. A pneumatic yieldable load bearing device comprising an enclosed container having wall portions movable and effective to vary the volume of the container, said portions supporting a load tending to move said portions, and a gas having a ratio of Cp/Cv of no more than 1.25 within said container selected from the group consisting of CC1F3, CH3F, CF4, C2F6, CHF3, SF6, BFs, CBrF3, and CC12F2, said gas being under a pressure effective to support said load and being uncondensible at temperatures and pressures within the container encountered during normal operation of the device.
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“4. A pneumatic spring comprising a vesel [sic] having movable wall portions effective to vary the volume of the vessel and to support a load tending to move said portions, and an inflating medium within said vessel comprising a gas under a pressure effective to support said load and having a ratio of Cp/Cv of no more than 1.25 and being uncondensible at temperatures and pressures within the container encountered during normal operation of the device.”

The ratio of Cp/Cv mentioned in the claims is symbolized by the Greek letter r, gamma. In the ratio the letter “C” is a constant which represents specific heat, i. e., the heat necessary to change the temperature of a given quantity of gas a given number of degrees. The letter “p” is pressure and “v” is volume. Cp/Cv is the ratio of the specific heat of a gas under constant pressure to the specific heat of that gas at constant volume. Gases having a gamma of no more than 1.25 are hereinafter termed “low gamma gases”; those with a gamma above 1.25 are termed “high gamma gases.” 1

*238 The device alleged to infringe claims 1, 2 and 4 of the patent is a shock absorber marketed under the names “Pleasurizer” and “Pliacell.” Appendix A to this opinion is a diagram of the device. The shock absorber is manufactured and sold by the defendant. Conventional shock absorbers, which were well known in the art, include an oil reservoir and a free gas space, usually filled with air, to accommodate displacement of the oil during stroking of the piston within the shock absorber. The accused device differs from conventional shock absorbers because it contains, instead of a free gas space, a nylon bag containing Freon-13 (trifluoromonochloromethane, CCI3F3), a low gamma gas.

Plaintiff did not invent pneumatic load bearing devices or pneumatic springs effective to support a load. Plaintiff neither discovered, defined nor formulated any law or property relating to any gas. Although plaintiff theorized that the use of a low gamma gas would lessen stiffness in a pneumatic device, he did not discover that stiffness is related to the gamma of the gas within the device. Nor did he invent any device which utilizes that natural property of a low gamma gas. The plaintiff testified and the Court finds that the relationship between stiffness and gamma is described in the prior art, Thompson, Mechanical Vibrations 81 (2d ed. 1951). In essence, however, plaintiff is attempting to monopolize load bearing devices or pneumatic springs which contain a low gamma gas and thereby utilize the principle that stiffness is related to the gamma of the gas in the device: “the invention may be embodied in pneumatic springs, tires, and similar devices by inflating them with a gas having a y of less than 1.25 . . . . Conventional pneumatic load bearing systems designed for use with air may be used in this invention without structural modification, by removing the air and replacing it with the low gamma gas under the same static pressure.” (Exh. 31, col. 2, lines 22-31.) Claims 1, 2 and 4 are so broad that their effect is to patent the relatively high compressibility of certain gases. The claims, if valid, would monopolize the purported benefits which flow from that natural physical property. 2

On January 9, 1956 plaintiff filed an application, Serial No. 557,985, for a patent. The only drawing filed in this 1956 application, attached as Appendix B to this opinion, depicts a “vehicle including a body 10” and a pneumatic spring “closed at the top by a close fitting cover plate 24 which carries the body 10.” “The cover plate 24 is supported by the pressure of the vapor of a liquid 26 . . . .” (Exh. J, “Application for United States Patent, Specification,” at 8-9.) The 1956 application had nine claims. The claims of the 1956 application, particularly claims 1, 2, 4 and 6 thereof, are relevant to an understanding of claims 1, 2 and 4 of the patent at issue. Claims 1, 2, 4 and 6 were rejected because of prior art on September 21, 1956.

The Patent Office received an amendment on March 19, 1957. The claims were rejected because of the same prior art on December 20, 1957. A second *239 amendment was received by the Patent Office on May 29, 1958. On September 5, 1958 a final rejection of the claims issued. The Acting Examiner relied on the same prior art and also included the statement: “Applicant apparently uses the terms ‘gases’ and ‘vapors’ interchangeably. ... A gas has a different thermodynamic characteristic than a vapor.” On March 2, 1959 plaintiff appealed to the Board of Appeals.

The appeal was to be heard by the Board of Appeals on November 8, 1961. On May 12, 1960 plaintiff expressly abandoned his application. 37 C.F.R. § 1.138 (Revised as of Jan. 1, 1960).

On January 25, 1960 3

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390 F. Supp. 236, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gross-v-general-motors-corporation-mad-1975.