Macbeth-Evans Glass Co. v. Rosenbaum Co.

199 F. 154, 1912 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1154
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 5, 1912
DocketNo. 127
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 199 F. 154 (Macbeth-Evans Glass Co. v. Rosenbaum Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Macbeth-Evans Glass Co. v. Rosenbaum Co., 199 F. 154, 1912 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1154 (W.D. Pa. 1912).

Opinion

YOUNG, District Judge.

This is a bill filed by the Macbeth-Evans Glass Company for infringement of design patent for lamp shades No. 41,785, granted to H. S. Evans September 19, 1911, and which it is alleged the defendant, the Rosenbaum Company, has infringed. The other defendant, the Jefferson Glass Company, was allowed to intervene and become a party defendant; it having alleged that it was the manufacturer of the lamp shades used by the Rosenbaum Company and which had been sold to that company through Stinson, Kennedy & Co., who had contracted with the Rosenbaum Company for the furnishing of the lamp shades. It is, admitted that the patent in controversy was assigned to the Macbeth-Evans Glass Company by H. S. Evans on August 16, 1911, before its issue. We gather from Fig. 1 qf the drawings accompanying the application for the patent that the design consisted of a bell-shaped glass shade having a slightly concave curve from the neck for a short distance, and then a gradual reverse convex curve to the bottom of the shade. Upon this is formed panels and [155]*155ribs. The whole outward surface is formed into panels by narrow ribs. The ribs are triangular with the body of the shade as a base, and reaching an apex above the surface of the shade and the adjacent panel. The rib, having a pointed end, begins on the bottom rim of the shade below the adjacent panel, and gradually narrows and retreats from the adjacent panels on either side until it disappears in a narrowing groove at the neck of the shade. Fig. 2 of the drawings shows that the pointed rib is triangular, having for its base a segment of the circle passing through the different points of the rim where the panels and ribs have a common meeting point. The articles manufactured under this patent offered as exhibits by both complainant and defendant, “complainant’s patent shade” and “Defendant’s Exhibit of Complainant’s Shade, January 19, 1912,” both show that some of the ribs are triangular, reaching an apex above the adjacent panels, and some are slightly rounded or flattened. The shades are manufactured in moulds, and have a uniform surface on the entire inside, and the panels and ribs gradually increase in thickness from the top of the convex curve near the neck to the bottom of the shade. The defenses are, first, noninfringement; second, invalidity of the patent over prior art; and, third, invalidity of the patent on account of the claim that the patentee, Evans, was not the true and original inventor of the subject-matter, but that the same was invented by one Eorin W. Young. For the sake of logical consideration we shall take these up in the following order: First, the invalidity of the patent; second, whether Young was the inventor; and, third, infringement.

[1] First, as to the defense that the patent is invalid because of the prior art. Patent No. 41,785, having been issued to Evans and by him assigned to complainant without more, would be a valid patent, and the burden was therefore on the defendants to show its invalidity in the light of the prior art. Defendants undertook to do this by offering in evidence, as showing the bell-shaped contour, the narrow ribs alternating with the broad panels, and the scallops at the lower edge, the following patents: Design patent No. 26,647, issued February 16, 1897, to E. F. Caldwell; design patent No. 37,812, issued July 15, 1905, to O. A. Mygatt; design patent No. 37,424, issued May 2, 1905, to K. Booth; design patent No. 40,607, issued April 5, 1910, to O. A. Mygatt; patent No. 790,026, issued May 16, 1905, to K. Booth — and the following exhibits: Fig. 8,715, p. 31, Pettingell-Andrews Company catalogue, filed in the Patent Office February 8, 1909; plate 6, cut P 804, and plate 7, cut 800, Pettingell-Andrews Company catalogue, 1904; page 138, cut 4,229, and page 148, cut 4,715, in the Morreau catalogue 4, copyrighted 1903; page 30, cut 3,107, in Bauer catalogue, 1904; plate 4, cut 6,514%, and plate 4, cut 6,517%, in Phoenix catalogue 16; pages 589, 595, 597, 626, and 664 of the Electrical Merchandise Catalogue No. 12 of Pettingell-Andrews Company — and exhibits of manufactured shades as follows: Defendants’ Exhibit narrow Sheffield design, Defendants’ Exhibit wide Sheffield design, and [156]*156Defendants’ Exhibit “Opallux” and “Pheno,” designed by Howard E. Watkins.

The question, then, is whether there is identity of design in the' patent of Evans viewed in the light of the state of the art as shown by the prior patents and by the preceding exhibits. We find the true test of identity of design laid down in Gorham Co. v. White, 14 Wall. 511, 20 L. Ed. 731, where Mr. Justice Strong says, on page 525:

“And the thing invented or produced, for which a patent is given, is that which gives a peculiar or distinctive appearance to the manufacture, or article to which it may be applied, or to which it gives form. The law manifestly contemplates that giving certain new and original appearances to a manufactured article may enhance its salable value, may enlarge the demand for it, and may be a meritorious service to the public.”

An examination of the patents, figures, and manufactured shades in evidence shows that there is a great and substantial difference ' between the shades patented, pictured, and made under prior patents and in the prior art and the design of the Evans patent. True, they are all more or less bell-shaped, in that they are narrower at the top than at the bottom; they are all traversed or cut up by ribs narrow or broad; they are all more or less scalloped at the lower edge, and among those that are moulded or pressed the inside surface is uniform and not broken up or fluted, but the most casual and superficial examination of the exhibits in the prior art shows that there is in the patent in suit, not only a striking difference in the design of the contour of the shade arising from the convex and concave curve between the lower edge and the top of the shade, but also in the conformation of the ribs and panels, where we find the narrow rib alternating with the broad panel. The above differences are very apparent to an ordinary observer, but these differences in construction would not determine the question of identity of the Evans design with those shown by the evidence as to the prior state of the art if those differences did not produce a different effect. As is said in Gorham Co. v. White, supra, 14 Wall. 525, 20 L. Ed. 731:

“Manifestly the mode in which those appearances are produced has very little, if anything, to do with giving increased salableness to the article. It is the appearance itself which attracts attention and calls out favor or dislike.”

And again on page 526 of 14 Wall. (20 L. Ed. 731):

“We do not say that in determining whether two designs are substantially the same, differences in the lines, the configuration, or the modes by which the aspects they exhibit are not to be considered; but we think the controlling consideration is the resultant effect.”

[2] Giving proper consideration then to the differences above pointed out, we inquire next whether or not the effect produced upon the eye of an ordinary observer is the same. Unmistakably, if we look at the Evans design, and those other designs offered in evidence, we at once see that an entirely different effect is produced. In the Evans design, we have a new and pleasurable sensa[157]

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199 F. 154, 1912 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/macbeth-evans-glass-co-v-rosenbaum-co-pawd-1912.