Mastin v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co.

236 F. Supp. 310
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedDecember 14, 1964
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 236 F. Supp. 310 (Mastin v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mastin v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co., 236 F. Supp. 310 (S.D.N.Y. 1964).

Opinion

RYAN, Chief Judge.

This suit charges infringement (35 U.S.C. § 271 et seq.) of claims 1, 2 and 3 of U. S. Patent No. 2,129,332, issued on September 6, 1938 to Domenico Mastini for a combination radio-telephone system. Plaintiff alleges that several of the defendants’ systems come within the above claims or, in the alternative, are the equivalent of his patent.

Defendants move under Rule 56, F.R. Civ.P. for summary judgment. We have before us on this motion a stipulation of undisputed facts and plaintiff’s answers to interrogatories propounded by defendants.

The Mastini patent in suit discloses and claims a particular type of radio-telephone system.

These systems have long been used to extend ordinary wire line telephone service to points geographically inaccessible for wire lines. Such a system requires only a local radio transmitter and receiver, connected with telephone wire line network, which can communicate by radio with a remote radio-telephone station, which itself includes a transmitter and receiver. A conversation received by radio from the remote radio-telephone station is forwarded into the telephone wire line network, thus enabling the person at the remote radio-telephone station to call any ordinary telephone.

It is in essence the defendants’ contention that defendants’ accused systems all differ from Mastini’s in a fundamental respect — the location and operation of the local radio transmitter and receiver. We find that there is no infringement and that the plaintiff is estopped from claiming equivalence. Summary judgment is granted for defendants.

Plaintiff, on this motion, has stated that the elements of his invention are embodied in Fig. 1 of the patent and that this drawing “is a schematic view exemplifying the general principles of the invention.” In the explanation of Fig. 1, it is disclosed that the invention consists of a telephone substation, which is attached to a telephone central station [312]*312by the wire lines of a telephone network. At the substation, there is an ordinary telephone apparatus. Associated with the substation is a radio transmitter and receiver, the latter being a radio-to-wire line repeater, both the transmitter and receiver forming part of apparatus.called a “complex” in the patent. This complex is correlated with a remote radio complex, which also contains a transmitter and receiver. When the remote radio activates the substation’s complex, the local transmitter and receiver is connected to and the ordinary telephone apparatus at the substation disconnected from the wires of the telephone system. This enables the remote radio to communicate via the substation complex and the central station with any telephone subscriber. Conversely, a call coming from the other direction can also activate the complex at the substation and complete the circuit in a similar fashion.

The defendants’ network has been stipulated by the parties to be embodied in the “1955 Mobile Telephone System”. In this network, calls from or to a remote radio are received or transmitted by a radio complex in a control terminal, which is attached by wires to a Toll Switchboard. At the Toll Switchboard, which is in turn attached to a Local Switchboard, there is a mobile telephone operator, who accomplishes the routing of the calls.

Plaintiff’s first contention is that the defendants’ system contains all of the elements of his invention. There is a remote radio, a central station, and a local radio complex in the central terminal, which is associated with the toll switchboard. The operator’s headset and mouthpiece, dial and signal lamp, it is argued, are the “usual telephone apparatus,” which together with the switchboard constitute a “telephone substation.”

Secondly, plaintiff contends that the fashion in which the defendants’ system functions is an infringement of his patent claims.

The operation of plaintiff’s system is described in the following language:

“ -x- * * means whereby radio signals received by said local receiving apparatus from said remote radio transmitter cause the disconnection of the local substation from the wire lines and the connection of the radio receiving apparatus thereto instead.” (Claim 1)

According to plaintiff, the defendants’ mobile operator is the “means” for accomplishing the “disconnection” and “connection” set out in the claims. When “radio signals” activate the control terminal, a light flashes at the switchboard. This “causes” the operator to insert first one jack-plug which connects her to the radio transmitter and receiver in the Control Terminal, and then a second to the wire line leading to the Central Station. This completes the “connection” of the radio transmitter and receiver to the wire lines. The operator then dials the station called and after the party called responds, she “causes” the “disconnection” of her telephone set from the wire lines leading to the central station by turning a key switch.

Plaintiff argues that although “in the schematic illustration of Fig. 1, which illustrates the general principle of the invention, no specific mechanism is illustrated for operating the selective connect-disconnect switch”, “it is obvious that well known alternatives for accomplishing such connect-disconnect switching may be used, such as manual switches, jack plugs and sockets; or relays.”

Plaintiff also invokes the Doctrine of Equivalence. He alleges that his system is a pioneer invention and, therefore, the patent should be construed liberally. He argues that, even if the elements and the “means” of defendants’ system are not literally within his claims, the Court should invoke its equity powers to deem them the equivalent of the claims.

Defendants’ position is that the patent specifications and file wrapper make it clear that the “local telephone substation” [313]*313of the Mastini claims refers only to a subscriber’s ordinary telephone. Furthermore, defendants contend that the patent is strictly limited, by file wrapper estoppel, to a fully automatic system and does not include a system where there is a manual “means”.

The elements of plaintiff’s invention as set out in Claim 1 are:

“In combination, a remote' radio transmitter, a local telephone substation, a central station, wire lines normally interposed between said local substation and said central station, local radio receiving apparatus and * *

According to the literal meaning of this claim, the elements of defendants’ network can be read to be within plaintiff’s patent. There is no indication that “a local telephone substation” cannot be a telephone switchboard with an operator.

The portion of the claims, which describes the operation of the invention, however, indicates that a fully automatic system is envisaged, and that the defendants' network utilizing a telephone operator does not infringe. The claims read:

“Means whereby radio signals * * cause the disconnection and the connection * * * ”. Claim 1
“ * * * means responsive to an incoming radio signal * * * for causing the sub-station to be disconnected * * * and for causing the connection * * Claim 2
“ * * * means whereby a signal * * * after demodulation by said local receiver, causes the disconnection * * * the connection * * ”. Claim 3

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Bluebook (online)
236 F. Supp. 310, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mastin-v-american-telephone-telegraph-co-nysd-1964.