In Re Bager

47 F.2d 951, 18 C.C.P.A. 1094
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedMarch 25, 1931
DocketPatent Appeal 2635
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 47 F.2d 951 (In Re Bager) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Bager, 47 F.2d 951, 18 C.C.P.A. 1094 (ccpa 1931).

Opinion

LENROOT, Associate Judge.

This is an appeal from a decision 'of the Board of Appeals of the United States Patent Office affirming a decision of the Examiner, rejecting all of the claims of appellants, nine in number. Claim 5 of the application is illustrative of the claims in issue, and reads as follows:

“5. In a power shovel, the combination of a boom, a dipper-handle capable of swinging movement in a substantially vertical plane, a dipper supported by the handle, a padlock-sheave for hoisting the dipper and located behind the rear wall of the dipper and entirely below the upper edge of the dipper backwardly extended, a pivot for the padlock-sheave, means carried by the handle for supporting said pivot, a sheave at the outer end of the boom, and a multiple-reach hoist cable passing over the sheave at the outer end of the boom and around the padlock-sheave.”

The references are Burke, 1,529,392, March 10, 1925; Johnson, 1,391,737, Sept. 27,1921.

The alleged invention in issue is described in the decision of the Board of Appeals as follows:

“The claims are directed to the location of the padlock-sheave in an otherwise old construction of power shovel mounting having the usual dipper handle, handle-end casing, and dipper. By locating the padlock-sheave below the upper edge of the dipper and behind the wall thereof, applicants claim they obtain greater digging range with, a shorter boom, all of which is of especial advantage in tunnel work.”

With regard to the references, the Board said:

“The patent to Johnson discloses substantially the type of dipper and dipper handle, set forth in the claims but this reference is not relied upon to disclose the padlock-sheave mounted in the particular place with respect to the dipper which applicants state constitutes their invention.
“The patent to Burke does disclose the handle-end casting with the padlock-slieave mounted just above the end of the dipper handle in a position where a greater digging range with a shorter boom would be secured. It is not denied that most of the claims fail to define from the construction disclosed in this patent to Burke. Applicants press the view, however, and in support thereof have presented two affidavits of experts in this art, that the particular disclosure of Burke is impractical, due to the unwieldy part of the *952 dipper shown attached to the handle, and that the showing of the location of the padlock-sheave is accidental, and, therefore, the reference should be withdrawn. It is suggested on behalf of the applicants that a draftsman may have placed the padlock-sheave in the particular location shown. Certain decisions are cited by the applicants in support of their view that this reference does not anticipate the invention here claimed.
“It is deemed immaterial whether the draftsman of his own initiative located the sheave in the position shown in the Burke patent or whether he was directed to so locate it by Burke. The sole question is whether one skilled in the art seeing the disclosure of the Burke patent would understand that the sheave was to be located in the position there shown and whether, were such a construction built and operated, the advantages claimed to result from such location of the sheave would be secured. As we regard the Burke disclosure it is sufficient to anticipate the location of the sheave claimed by the applicants. If their construction has any advantages over that'disclosed by Burke such construction is not recited in the claims. * * * ”

Appellants’ principal contention' is that the showing by Burke in his drawing of the location of his sheave, relied upon by the Board as anticipating appellants’ claims, was accidental, and that an accidental showing is, as a matter of law, nq anticipation. They further contend that there is no analogy between Burke’s device and that of appellants. [2] An affidavit of one Burke, the patentee of the Burke reference, is found in the record, but there is nothing in the record to show that it was offered in evidence or considered by the tribunals of the Patent Office in their determination of the ease. The statute requires this court to review decisions of the Patent Office on the evidence prodniced before the Patent Office tribunals.

' Upon oral argument it was stated by appellants’ counsel, and admitted by the Solicitor for the Patent Office, that said affidavit was in fact offered in support of a motion for rehearing before the Board of Appeals.

However, from an examination of the Burke specification, we find that he makes no reference to the positioning of the sheave in question shown upon his drawing, and we think the positioning of said sheave was, as claimed by appellants, accidental.

The Board of Appeals, as heretofore shown, held that it was immaterial whether .the draftsman of his own initiative located the sheave as shown in the Burke patent, or whether he was directed so to locate it by Burke, and that the only question was whether one skilled in the art, seeing the drawing of the Burke patent, would conclude that the sheave was to be located in the position there shown, and whether, were such a construction built and operated, the advantages here claimed to result from such location would be secured.

We think the Board has correctly stated the law applicable to the question here involved.

Appellants insist that an accidental showing cannot, as a matter of law, be held to be an anticipation. In support of such contention, they cite the decision of this court in the case of In re Daniel, 34 F.(2d) 995, 999, 17 C. C. P. A. 605, and in the supplemental brief of their counsel, the following statement appears, referring to the opinion in said case:

“* * * Tour Honors have now stated:
“ ‘An accidental showing with no claim based thereon in the patent issued does not constitute an anticipation or disclosure which should preclude favorable action on appellant's claim covering this point.’ ”

The complete paragraph in said opinion from which the foregoing quotation was taken reads as follows:

“Appellant has fu/rnished us with numerous references to adjudicated cases to fortify his insistence that an accidental showing with no claim based thereon in the patent issued does not constitute an anticipation or disclosure which should preclude favorable action on appellant’s claim covering this point.” (Italics not quoted.)

What this court did hold in the Daniel Case is disclosed in the following quotation from the opinion. After reciting the facts and discussing the authorities, the court, speaking through Judge Garrett, said:

“We are of opinion, therefore, and hold that, so far as that part of Figure 5 in the Dawson reissue No. 14,375, showing the overhanging arm 11 and the ears and guide roller, or pulley therein, is concerned, it was an accidental showing of such a nature, wider all the facts of the case, that it cannot be held to be anticipation of the later application of appellant Daniel, and there does not appear to be any conflict between the claims of Daniel in the instant case and that portion of Fig.

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Bluebook (online)
47 F.2d 951, 18 C.C.P.A. 1094, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-bager-ccpa-1931.