Kelleher v. Darling

14 F. Cas. 223, 4 Cliff. 424, 13 Ban. & A. 438, 1878 U.S. App. LEXIS 1895
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Maine
DecidedSeptember 21, 1878
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 14 F. Cas. 223 (Kelleher v. Darling) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kelleher v. Darling, 14 F. Cas. 223, 4 Cliff. 424, 13 Ban. & A. 438, 1878 U.S. App. LEXIS 1895 (circtdme 1878).

Opinion

CLIFFORD, Circuit Justice.

Persons sued .as infringers in an action at law may plead the general issue, and, having given the required notice in writing thirty days before, may prove, on trial, the special matters set forth in the act of congress, of which the following are material to be noticed in the pres■ent case: (1) That the invention had been patented or described in some printed publication prior to the supposed invention or discovery. (2) That the patentee was not the original and first inventor or discoverer of any material or substantial part of the thing patented. (3) That the invention had been in public use or on sale in this country for more than two years before his application for a patent, or that it had been abandoned to the public. Rev. St. § 4920.

Notices of the kind must be in writing, and must be given thirty days before the trial; and, if the defence is prior invention, knowledge, or use of the thing patented, the requirement is that it shall state the names of the patentees and the dates of their patents, and when granted, and the names and residences of the persons alleged to have invented, or to have had the prior knowledge of the thing patented, and where and by whom it had been used. Like defences may be pleaded in equity for relief against infringement, and proofs of the same may be given upon like notice in the answer. Proof to sustain the first ■defence is sufficient, if the patent introduced for the purpose, whether foreign or domestic, was duly issued, or the complete description of the invention was published in some printed publication prior to the supjiosed invention or discovery, and the patent or printed publication will be held to be prior if it is of prior date to the patent in suit, unless the patent in suit is accompanied by the application for the same, or unless the plaintiff or complainant, as the case may be, introduces parol proof to show that the invention was actually made prior to the date of the patent or prior to the time the application was filed. Neither the defendant nor respondent can be permitted to prove that the invention described in the alleged prior patent, or the invention described in the printed publication, was made prior to the date of such patent or printed publication, for the reason that the patent or publication can only have the effect as evidence that is given to them by the act of congress. Unlike that, the presumption in respect to the invention described in the patent in suit is, if it is accompanied by the application, that it was made at the time the application was filed, and the plaintiff or complainant may, if he can, introduce evidence to show that it was made and reduced to practice at a much earlier date.

Two reissued patents are the subject of the present suit, both of which are of the same date, and were obtained upon the surrender of an original patent previously issued to the same patentees for certain alleged new and useful improvements in the manufacture of moccasin boots and shoes, or boot and shoe pacs, as particularly described in the original specification. The power of the commissioner to cause a new patent for the same invention to issue, in case the original is surrendered, is not questioned; nor is it denied that he, in his discretion, may cause several patents to be issued for distinct and separate parts of the thing patented, upon demand of the applicant, and upon payment of the required fee for each reissue. Rev. St p. 959, § 4916. Separate examination will be given to each patent, though certain parts of the specification in each are the same, having been borrowed from the original. As described in the original and in each of the reissues, the invention consists in so cutting the leather or material of which the pacs are manufactured as to be able to do all the sewing of the upper parts by machinery, instead of by hand, — the latter being the method necessarily employed at present, — and it also enables the operator to improve the shape, and to so change the position of some of the seams as to add very much to the durability of the pacs. Detailed description is then given, in the specification of the reissued patent for the moccasin boots or boot-pac, of the several pieces of which the pac is composed, by special reference to certain figures in the reissued drawings, and in the exact words and figures contained in the original drawings. Appended to that is the description of the manner in which the leg of the boot-pac and the quarter and vamp are cut, the same being given in the same words' as in the surrendered patent, from which it appears that the leg of the boot-pac is made in two pieces, that the quarter is formed in one piece crossing and passing forward of the seam in the leg and joining directly on to the vamp, and that the vamp is also stitched to the front part of the leg, all the seams being fiat seams, which may be closed by sewing-machines. Every step in the process of cutting and stitching the parts together having been described, the patentee proceeds to state that the different parts are designed and arranged expressly with a view to enable all the seams to be closed by machinery, and to dispense with hand-work altogether in the sewing, even to sewing on the soles, and that for that purpose all the patterns have been simplified so as to admit of lap-seams; and he expresses the belief that there never was a pac [228]*228made before in which lap-seams were exclusively used, nor in which all the seams, even to sewing on the soles, could be accomplished by machinery, which, as he states, reduces the cost of manufacture very materially, and allows the use of heavy material for soles, and lighter and less expensive material for uppers. Both of the things patented are called “pacs,” from the manner in which they are used. They are made of a peculiar kind of leather called “moccasin” leather, and are cut large, to admit of packing between the inside of the upper leather and the foot of the wearer. Boots and shoes are usually made to fit the foot; but the moccasin-pac, whether boot or shoe, is made much larger than the foot of the wearer, in order that it may contain the desired amount of packing for protection to the foot in extreme cold weather.

Coming first to the reissue 6,09S, which is the moccasin-boot, and which contains four claims, to the effect following: (1) Por a moccasin boot or shoe pac formed of five parts, cut as shown and described, and joined together by flat lapped seams. (2) Por a moccasin boot or pae with the leg formed of two flat pieces cut as shown and described, and united by two lapped seams, one on each side of the leg, as shown and described. (3) For the quarter of a moccasin-pac cut in the form shown and described, and formed into one piece, for the use as specified. (4) For the described process of smooth-crimping the instep of a pac or moccasin, consisting m cutting the tip and front with edges of different lengths, and of dissimilar outlines, and bending, stretching, and compacting the edges, in the act of sewing with a flat seam, so as to cause them to coincide under the needle, the joining of the differential edges displacing and forcing out the leather uf the two parts in such a manner as to form the crimp.

Service was made, and the respondent appeared and filed an answer, in respect to the first patent, setting up, in substance and effect, the following defences: First. That the reissued patent, 6,098, embraces and includes, both in the specification and claims, new matter, not described, suggested, or indicated in the specification of the original patent, nor shown in the drawings or patent office model. Second.

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Related

McKay & Copeland Lasting Mach. Co. v. Claflin
58 F. 353 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts, 1893)
Andrews v. Hovey
124 U.S. 694 (Supreme Court, 1888)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
14 F. Cas. 223, 4 Cliff. 424, 13 Ban. & A. 438, 1878 U.S. App. LEXIS 1895, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kelleher-v-darling-circtdme-1878.