In re Wenzel

88 F.2d 501, 24 C.C.P.A. 1050, 1937 CCPA LEXIS 83
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedMarch 22, 1937
DocketNo. 3767
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 88 F.2d 501 (In re Wenzel) 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 Wenzel, 88 F.2d 501, 24 C.C.P.A. 1050, 1937 CCPA LEXIS 83 (ccpa 1937).

Opinion

Lenroot, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

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 claims 18, 19, 20, and 22 of appellant’s application for lack of invention over the cited prior art. Certain claims were allowed by the examiner. Appellant’s application was filed on December 6, 1929.

Claim 18 is illustrative of the subject-matter involved and reads; as follows:

18. The method of insulating walls, ceilings and the like which consists in diffusively spraying into the space therein a substantially dry flocculent material, and floating the particles thereof into light mutual contact to form a loose non-compacted mass substantially filling the space within the wall.

The references cited are:

Kalkite ad.; page 7, “The Wheaton Illinoian,” July 15,1927.
Chase, 318,870, May 26, 1885.

[1051]*1051The reference last above named was not cited by the examiner,, but was cited by the Board of Appeals.

Appellant’s application relates to a process of insulating hollow-walls, ceilings, and the like by pneumatically spraying therein flocculent material in a dry state.

The references are accurately described in appellant’s brief as. follows:

The Kalkite advertisement (Record p. 22D) is a printed publication,. conceded to bave been published on July 15, 1927, slightly more than two years-prior to the filing date, (December 6, 1929) of appellant’s application.
It refers to an insulating material 'termed Kalkite, consisting of “vegetable fibre bounded with gypsum”, which is introduced into a wall space through a pneumatic hose in a manner to form a substantially rigid slab within the wall space. The ad states that the “gypsum bond converts the Kalkite into a monolithic barrier against the passage of useful heat and the entrance of unwanted cold”. It is described as “having a cork-like structure” and is said to “add strength to the house walls and help to prevent settling and undue sagging”.
»i» «i» H» «I» *5*
The Chase patent, No. 318,870, issued May 26, 1885 (Record, p. 22A, 22B, and 22C) relates to a specially constructed refrigerator wall filled with “mill-shavings, cut straw, granulated cork, or other light and elastic non-conducting, material”. * * *

The insulating material employed by appellant differs from that described in the Kalkite advertisement in that appellant’s material is comminuted, dry, and when in place is a loose non-compacted mass, while in the Kalkite advertisement the material when in place forms a solid mass. However, the material disclosed in the Chase patent for insulating purposes is similar to the material employed by appellant.

It will be noted that the date of the Kalkite advertisement is July 15, 1927, which was more than two years prior to the date of the filing of appellant’s application.

It is established by the record that the invention claimed by appellant was conceived and reduced to practice by her as early as 1924.

Three principal contentions are made by appellant, as follows:

1. That the Kalkite advertisement is not a proper reference because appellant made the invention here involved before the date of its publication, and said publication is not a statutory bar because appellant employs a different insulating material than that disclosed in said advertisement.

2. That because appellant made the claimed invention before the date of the Kalkite advertisement, it was error upon the part of the Board of Appeals to combine the disclosure of said advertisement with the disclosure of the Chase patent as a basis for finding that the involved claims lacked invention.

[1052]*10523. That appellant’s claims are patentable, even though said references be combined.

With respect to appellant’s first contention, we would observe that the examiner made no reference to this point in his statement, nor did the board in its original decision. Upon a motion for reconsideration, however, the board in a second decision did discuss this point, saying:

Appellant’s main contention is that this invention was reduced to practice by this applicant long prior to July 15', 1927, the date oí the Kalkite publication as established in interference No. 59,408. Yet appellant recognizes that the date of the irublication is mpre than two years prior to the filing date of his application so that the publication is a statutory bar as to all that it discloses.
It seems to be appellant’s position that to defeat the appealed claims, the publication must disclose a method substantially that defined in the claims and the publication cannot be used as a primary reference with which a secondary reference is combined to meet the terms of the claims. We know of no authority in support of such contention and appellant has cited none. It is our view that the Kalkite advertisement is a proper reference as used by us.

We are of the opinion that tlie Kalkite publication is a statutory bar against tlie patenting of any invention disclosed in said publication, when the date of application for patent is more than two years subsequent to the date of the publication, even though the invention sought to be patented was made prior to the date of the publication. Clearly, to constitute such bar the invention disclosed in the publication need not be described in the exact terms used to describe the invention sought to be patented. It is sufficient if the same inventive concept is found in both. Were this not so a statutory bar would have little scope as barring an invention made earlier thaii the date of a publication, but for which an application for patent is filed more than two years after the date of the publication.

The gist of appellant’s claimed invention is the diffusively spraying of dry flocculent insulating material into the wall-space of a building. The Kalkite publication discloses a similar spraying of insulating material of a different character into the wall-space of a building. If the kind of material sprayed by appellant is disclosed by the prior art, and not a part of the inventive concept, then the real invention, if any, is the spraying of insulating material into the wall-space of a building, and in such case the Kalkite publication would be a statutory bar to the allowance of appellant’s claims because her application was filed more than two-years after the date of said publication.

On the other hand, if the kind of material used was a part of the inventive concept because it would not be obvious to one skilled in the art to substitute it for the material disclosed in the Kalkite pub[1053]*1053lication then it might be that said publication would not constitute a statutory bar to the allowance of appellant’s claims. However, the publication is certainly a statutory bar to all that it discloses.

Counsel for appellant have cited the case of Klein v. Bussell, 86 U. S. 483, which they state is the only case they can find bearing upon this point. That case involved in part the question of two years’ public use of a novel treatment for lamb skins by the use of a fat liquor.

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Bluebook (online)
88 F.2d 501, 24 C.C.P.A. 1050, 1937 CCPA LEXIS 83, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-wenzel-ccpa-1937.