Kerosene Lamp Heater Co. v. Littell

14 F. Cas. 375, 3 Ban. & A. 312

This text of 14 F. Cas. 375 (Kerosene Lamp Heater Co. v. Littell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kerosene Lamp Heater Co. v. Littell, 14 F. Cas. 375, 3 Ban. & A. 312 (circtdnj 1878).

Opinion

NIXON. District Judge.

The bill of complaint in this case is for the infringement of certain reissued letters patent No. 7,069, granted to the complainant corporation on the ISth of April, 1876, praying for an injunction and an account. The original patent No. 35,598 was issued to Warren L. Fish, June 17th, 1862. The defence is substantially embraced in three’ propositions: (1) That the reissue is void, not being for the same invention as the original patent. (2) That it has been anticipated by prior inventions. (3) That the defendant's stove is not an infringement.

Is the reissue for the same or a different invention? This question is answered by n comparison of the reissue with the original patent. It is the presumption of law that they are the same, and this presumption is only overthrown by finding elements or combinations in the one which do not substantially exist in the other.

The subject-matter of the patent is an apparatus for heating, in which the flame of the lamp is used as the heating agent. In the original the patentee calls his invention “a new and improved attachment to lamp chimneys.” He says that “it consists in the arrangement of a receiver in combination with the chimney of a kerosene or other flame, in such a manner that water or other liquid poured into such receiver can be heated by the action of the flame in an easy and convenient manner; and of a window in the lower part of the metal chimney, in such [Drawing of patent No. 35,598, granted June 17, 1802, to W. L. Fish, published from the records of the United States patent office.]

a manner that the flame can be observed from the outside, and that sufficient light is .allowed tó pass out into the room to render the device available for a nurse-lamp.” He claims as new: “(1) A lamp-chimney A provided with a receiver B, substantially as and for the purpose shown and described. (2) The arrangement of the window e in the metal bulb a of the chimney A, as and for the purpose set forth.” .

Two intermediate reissues were obtained, one dated December 23d, 1862, No. 1,368, and the other dated January 5th, 1864, No. 1.596, which I will not stop to consider, as the comparison is to be made with the third reissue, dated April 18th, 1876, and numbered 7,069. In this reissue the claims are multiplied into four. The specification states that “the invention has for its object the utilization of the heat of the illuminating flame of kerosene oil lamps, and consists. first, in the combination, substantially as therein shown and described, of a kerosene oil lamp, deflector or cone, and a metallic heating-chamber or shell, adapted to support the vessel to be heated; second, in a kerosene oil lamp heater, in which the deflector or cone of the lamp is arranged in the bottom of the metallic heating chamber or shell that is adapted to support the vessel to be heated; third, in the combination of a kerosene oil lamp, a deflector or cone, and a metallic heating-chamber, under the arrangement substantially as shown and described, so that the air for the sustenance of the flame in the heater shall be admitted through the bottom of the heater, and .the [377]*377(Drawings of reissued patent No. 7,069, granted April 18, 1870, to W. L. Fish, published from the records of the United States patent office.)

products of combustion shall pass off through a contracted opening in the top of the heater; fourth, in the combination of a kerosene oil lamp, a metallic shell adapted to support a vessel to be heated, and a window made of transparent material in the walls of the shell, substantially as therein set forth.”

The action of the commissioner of patents in granting the reissue under section' 4910 of the Revised Statutes has conclusively settled the question that the original patent was inoperative or invalid by reason of a defective or insufficient specification, or by reason of the patentee claiming, as his own invention, more than he had a right to claim as new, and that the error arose by inadvertence, accident, or mistake, and without any fraudulent or deceptive intention. Seymour v. Osborne, 11 Wall. [78 U. S.] 516. The reissue, nevertheless, must be for the same invention. It may change the phraseology, correct the specification, and,. under some circumstances, increase the number of claims of the original patent, but no new matter may be added to the schedule or specifications, nor any new claim made, unless the same were substantially embraced, indicated or suggested in the original description, claims, drawing or model.

In the case before the court the drawings are identical in the original and in' the reissue, and if it shall appear on examination that nothing has been embraced in the reissue beyond what is fairly indicated in the drawings, it must be held, as k matter of legal construction, that the inventions claimed in the two patents are the same. In the description of the original patent, the pat-entee clearly indicates a combination. The elements of the combination are: (1) A receiver to hold the water to be heated; (2) a metallic lamp-chimney, of a peculiar construction, consisting of two parts — to wit, of a bulb and tube, fitting together and yet capable of separation, the tube being soldered to the receiver and removable with it from the bulb; (3) the flame of a kerosene or other lamp placed under the chimney in such a manner that the action of the flame will impart heat to the water. In addition to the foregoing — not in combination with it —is a window in the bulb of the chimney, so arranged that the flame is visible from the outside, and at the same time the window admits the light from the flame into the room.

In the reissue, the invention is described as a combination, and is made the subject of four clauses of claims. To this the counsel of the defendant objects, (1) because,.as he alleges, the mechanism of the complainant’s patent shows a mere aggregation of parts, and not an original and useful invention; and (2) because the patentee has introduced new matter into the claims, as, for instance, the slotted deflector and cone, and changed the scope of the original patent by limiting the heating flame to a kerosene lamp.

(1) It is true that a patent for a combination cannot be maintained where nothing is done except to bring well-known devices into juxtaposition, each working its own effect, and the aggregate producing no new and useful result. Hailes v. Van Wormer, 20 Wall. [87 U. S.] 353. Such a use of old elements involves no invention. But the complainant claims that the patentee has accomplished more than this; that a new [378]*378and practical result has been attained by tbe coaction of tbe elementary parts of the combination, which was not reached by their separate action before the combination was made; and, in my judgment, the evidence sustains the claim.

(2) The second objection involves the consideration of the province of a reissue. It must be for the same invention; but, subject to this limitation, such changes may be introduced in the description, specifications or claims, as may be deemed necessary to give validity to the invention, and protect it against infringement. Whatever is fairly indicated, either in the schedules, drawing or model of the original, may be comprehended in the specifications and claims of a reissue, without subjecting the patentee to the imputation of claiming more than he is entitled to. Jordan v. Dobson [Case No. 7,519]; Parham v. American Buttonhole, Over-Seaming & Sewing-Mach. Co. [Id. 10,-713]; Aultman. v. Holley [Id. 656]; Herring v. Nelson [Id. 6,424].

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14 F. Cas. 375, 3 Ban. & A. 312, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kerosene-lamp-heater-co-v-littell-circtdnj-1878.