Mojonnier Dawson Co. v. U. S. Dairies Sales Corp.

251 F.2d 345, 116 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 106
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJanuary 15, 1958
DocketNos. 11784-11786
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 251 F.2d 345 (Mojonnier Dawson Co. v. U. S. Dairies Sales Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mojonnier Dawson Co. v. U. S. Dairies Sales Corp., 251 F.2d 345, 116 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 106 (7th Cir. 1958).

Opinions

SCHNACKENBERG, Circuit Judge.

In count I of its second amended complaint, filed September 27, 1954, plaintiff alleged infringement by defendants 1 of claims 1, 6 and 7 of Mojonnier United States reissue patent No. -23,830, and, in count III, alleged unfair competition and aggravation of the infringement by defendants.

The Brasile defendants filed an answer, denying infringement, and a counterclaim charging plaintiff with unfair competition, to which plaintiff filed an answer. The Lewis defendants also answered.

The case was tried on these pleadings. At the close of plaintiff’s case, the court dismissed the action as to the .Lewis defendants.

[347]*347At the close of all the evidence, the court held that the patent was invalid in its entirety and that there was no unfair competition by either plaintiff or the Brasile defendants. The charge of infringement and various defenses advanced were not decided.

The patent in suit, issued to Albert B. Mojonnier, and assigned to plaintiff, recites that it relates to mechanisms for dispensing milk, whipping cream, beverages, syrup, paint, shellac, hand lotion, cosmetics, insecticides, powders, drugs, and other free-flowing fluids and com-minuted materials, and more particularly to mechanisms for dispensing such free-flowing materials into containers.

Plaintiff’s brief asserts that the Mojonnier machine is especially designed for repetitive production filling in commercial plants where the filling operations require a high degree of accuracy in the quantity dispensed at each filling and where the cost of such filling operations is important and further, that this machine is of particular utility in the dairy industry for filling milk into wax or paraffin-treated paper cartons commonly known as “paper cartons”; also in the aerosol industry for filling chemicals, propellants and products into the so-called aerosol “bombs” for spraying or dispensing insecticides, deodorants, shaving soap, whipping cream and many other products.

The Mojonnier patent refers to a vacuum plunger type dispensing mechanism said to have been theretofore widely used, stating that this type had not always been satisfactory for dispensing free-flowing fluids, particularly with reference to accuracy, i. e. being able to dispense within very close tolerances the same volume of weight of fluid upon successive operations of the dispensing mechanism. It also asserts that vacuum dispensing mechanisms, while fairly accurate for dispensing fluid into a container to a preselected level, are not accurate insofar as volumetric displacements of free-flowing fluids are concerned, and that the plunger type is not so accurate when utilized for free-flowing fluids; that different mechanisms must be used for each of different products and they cannot be quickly adapted to other products; that the mechanisms have so many small parts they are difficult to assemble, clean and service; that the attempted use of some such mechanisms in the dairy and like industries has met with disfavor, and in some cases health officials have disapproved their use due to the fact that milk passing through such units is subject to contamination because they cannot be adequately cleaned; that the paint industry does not employ dispensing mechanisms to any great extent because it is so hard to clean the complicated mechanisms and difficult to change from one color to another, with the result that it is more economical and practical to fill the cans by manual operation.

In the face of these conditions, Mojonnier, by his patent, seeks to accomplish the following objects:

(1) a multi-purpose dispensing mechanism that may be used to accurately dispense volumetrically any free-flowing liquid; (2) novel means for dispensing to a high degree of accuracy predetermined volumes of fluid upon successive actuations; (3) a simple construction relatively inexpensive to manufacture, easy to assemble and disassemble, and requiring a minimum of maintenance; (4) easy changing to any desired volume within the limits of the dispensing mechanism; (5) control of the splash effected by discharging the fluid into a receptacle; (6) a novel dispensing mechanism that may be used on a variety of fluids; (7) a novel mechanism that can be thoroughly and readily cleaned and maintained in a sanitary condition; and (8) a mechanism wherein there is a minimum amount of fluid left in the dispenser at the end of a dispensing run.

Claim 1 follows:

“1. In a dispensing mechanism, the combination of a fluid container, means for supplying fluid to said container, means in said container operable to maintain the fluid in the container at a preselected level, a [348]*348valve mounted on the container for dispensing fluid from the container into a receptacle, a solenoid mounted on said container for operating said valve, a member extending through said container for interconnecting said solenoid and said valve, an interval timer for controlling the energization of the solenoid and means to actuate said timer to energize said solenoid and thereby move said member to open said valve, whereby a substantially constant volume of liquid is dispensed each time said solenoid is energized.”

Claims 6 and 7 were added by the application for the reissue patent.2

Claim 7 follows;

“7. A filling machine for delivering an accurately controlled predetermined quantity of milk and other free flowing fluids for the repetitive filling of individual milk containers and the like each in a single complete operation, the combination of. a large source of fluid, a fluid supply container having a fluid capacity substantially smaller than said source and larger than the quantity to be delivered in filling said individual containers, a fluid delivery line interconnecting said source and said supply container, a valve operable to control the flow of fluid through said fluid delivery line into said supply container, the supply container being provided with a bottom delivery outlet having a given orifice factor and area of orifice through which outlet orifice the fluid freely flows by gravity, a valve in said outlet operable between an open position in which the fluid flows for delivery into an individual container located beneath said supply container and a closed position for stopping said flow, a float in said supply container operable to control the first mentioned valve to replace the fluid in said supply container as it is dispensed and also operable to maintain the fluid in the supply container at a preselected level and providing a hydrostatic head of predetermined value with relation to said orifice factor and area of orifice whereby to effect controlled relative[349]

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Bluebook (online)
251 F.2d 345, 116 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 106, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mojonnier-dawson-co-v-u-s-dairies-sales-corp-ca7-1958.