Heller Bros. v. Crucible Steel Co. of America

297 F. 39, 1924 U.S. App. LEXIS 2764
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedMarch 12, 1924
DocketNo. 3077
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 297 F. 39 (Heller Bros. v. Crucible Steel Co. of America) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Heller Bros. v. Crucible Steel Co. of America, 297 F. 39, 1924 U.S. App. LEXIS 2764 (3d Cir. 1924).

Opinion

MORRIS, District Judge.

Crucible .Steel Company of America by its bill of complaint charges Heller Bros. Company with infringement of letters patent No. 993,631, dated May 30, 1911, for a method of manufacturing hollow metal rods, bars, and the like. The defenses are invalidity and noninfringement. The court below found both claims of the patent valid and infringed.

The application for the patent contained, originally, no process claims. By amendment the original claims were struck out and two process claims were substituted. The substitution was unaccompanied by a supplemental oath. The defendant asserts that the claims, both of which are in suit, are invalid for that reason. The plaintiff takes the [40]*40position that the claims are derivable from the original specification and that they are narrower than one of the original claims. It asserts that, when either of these circumstances occurs, no supplemental oath is necessary.

The provisions of -the act now in force with respect to the oath to be made by an applicant for a patent (R. S. § 4892 [Comp. St ■ 1916, § 9436]), are not wholly unlike provisions in the Patent Acts of 1793, 1836, and'1870. Originally it was held that the statute was directory only; that the taking of the oath was but a prerequisite to. the granting of the.patent, and in no degree essential to its validity."1 Whittemore v. Cutter, Fed. Cas. No. 17,600; Crompton v. Belknap Mills, Fed. Cas. No. 18,285; Dyer v. Rich et al., 1 Metc. (Mass.) 180, 191. These decisions of Mr. Justice Story, of Judge Clark, with whom sat Mr. Justice Clifford, and of Chief Justice Shaw were apparently overruled, and a contrary doctrine established, by Kennedy v. Hazelton, 128 U. S. 667, 672, 9 Sup. Ct. 202, 203 (32 L. Ed. 576) where it was said:

“The patent law makes it essential to the validity of a patent that it shall be granted on the application, supported by the oath, of the original and first inventor (or of his executor or administrator), whether the patent is issued to him or to his assignee. A patent which is not supported by the oath of the inventor, but applied for by one who is not the inventor, is unauthorized by law, and void, and, whether taken out in the name of the applicant or of any assignee of his, confers no rights as against the public, Rev. St. §§ 4886, 4888, 4892, 4895, 4896, 4920.” ¡

The decision of Mr. Justice Grier, sitting in the Eastern district of Pennsylvania, in Child v. Adams, Fed. Cas. No. 2,673, construing the act of 1836, was to the same effect. It had likewise been held in Hoe v. Cottrell (C. C.) 1 Fed. 597, and in Hancock Inspirator Co. v. Jenks (C. C.) 21 Fed. 911, that, as the Commissioner of Patents had general jurisdiction of the subject, it must he presumed that all the requirements of the law were complied with before the patent was issued; that the acts of the Commissioner could not be collaterally impeached; and that, if invalid, the patent could be set aside only on a direct proceeding for that purpose. Hoe v. Cottrell (C. C.) 1 Fed. 597; Hancock Inspirator Co. v. Jenks (C. C.) 21 Fed. 911. In Hoe v. Kahler (C. C.) 25 Fed. 271, 279, Mr. Justice Blatchford held this presumption not rebuttable by the file wrapper and contents. In Seymour v. Osborne, 11 Wall. 516, 539, 20 L. Ed. 33, it was held that the recital in the letters patent that the required oath had been taken was conclusive evidence upon that point.

But these rules of procedure and evidence do not remain wholly unshaken by the Supreme Court. In Marsh v. Nichols, Shepard & Co., 128 U. S. 605, 610, 9 Sup. Ct. 168, 32 L. Ed. 538, it was held that while it is undoubtedly true, as a general rule, that a patent can be attacked, for defects not apparent on its face, only by regular proceedings instituted for that purpose, wherein the pleadings must set ttp the specific vitiating acts, and, in the absence of statute, is not open to collateral attack, yet the rule applies only to those cases where the patent has been 'in fact executed, and the authority of the officers to issue the same was complete. That ruling was made in an infringement suit, and the patent sued upon was held invalid for want of [41]*41the signature of the Secretary of the Interior. Kennedy v. Hazelton, supra, was a bill for specific performance, alleging that the defendant had agreed in writing to assign to the plaintiff any patents that he might obtain for improvements in steam boilers; that he did invent such an improvement, but, with intent to evade his agreement, caused the patent therefor to be obtained upon the application under oath of a third person as the inventor, and to be issued to him, the defendant, as the assignee of that person. The bill sought, a decree to compel the defendant to assign the patent to the plaintiff. TJpon demurrer it was held that the presumption of validity was overthrown by the allegations of the bill, admitted by the demurrer.

But in the case at bar no question with respect to the pleadings or method of raising the question of validity of the claims is presented. Furthermore, it is conceded that oath was made to the original application and that none was made to the amendment substituting the process claims for the original apparatus claims. Consequently the question here presented is not one of procedure or of evidence, but is one of substantive law only. With respect to amendments, Robinson on Patents states the law thus:

“Amendments in substance can be made only within certain limits, and under certain prescribed conditions. No new matter can, under any circumstances, be introduced by amendment. New, matter is that which is not found in the specification, drawings, or model, as first filed, and which involves a departure from the original invention. Such matter must necessarily be a distinct art or instrument, or a new and separately patentable improvement on the old, and can be now presented only in a separate application. The scope of the amending power is limited to such alterations of description and assertion as do not affect the essential character of the invention or the person of the patentee. For a mistake in theSe the only remedy is by the issue of a new, original patent, 'upon an independent application. Sections 561, 635.”

In Michigan Cent. R. Co. v. Consolidated Car Heating Co. (C. C. A. 6) 67 Fed. 121, 128, 14 C. C. A. 232, the court said that the test is “whether the amendment is within the scope of the original application, or introduces new matter,” and, quoting from Western Electric Co. v. Sperry Electric Co. (C. C. A. 7) 58 Fed. 186, 196, 7 C. C. A. 164, 174, added:

, “So long as he [the inventor] did not change the structure of his device or his invention, he had the right to change the specification.”

In Cleveland Foundry Co. v. Detroit Vapor Stove Co. (C. C. A. 6) 131 Fed. 853, 858; 68 C. C. A. 233, 238, the court, after holding that an amendment bringing in original matter would not be justifiable, but that an amendment bringing in something that might be “fairly deduced from the original application” would be justifiable, said:

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297 F. 39, 1924 U.S. App. LEXIS 2764, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heller-bros-v-crucible-steel-co-of-america-ca3-1924.