Parker v. Ballantine

101 F.2d 220, 26 C.C.P.A. 799, 40 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 360, 1939 CCPA LEXIS 85
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedJanuary 23, 1939
DocketNo. 4026
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 101 F.2d 220 (Parker v. Ballantine) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Parker v. Ballantine, 101 F.2d 220, 26 C.C.P.A. 799, 40 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 360, 1939 CCPA LEXIS 85 (ccpa 1939).

Opinion

Bland, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from the decision of the Board of Appeals of the-United States Patent Office in an interference proceeding between, the senior party Ballantine, appellee, and the junior party Parker,, appellant.

In order that the subsequent discussion may be more readily understood it is thought proper to state at this point in the decision that, in view of our conclusion, the sole issue to be determined is whether or not the party Parker can make the one count in issue which is a claim copied from the reissued patent of the appellee-Ballantine.

On May 23, 1933, Ballantine obtained reissue patent No. 18,835,. being a reissue of his original patent No. 1,723,719, granted August 6, 1929, on an application filed January 9, 1923, the application for reissue being filled June 13, 1930.

Parker obtained on June 5, 1928, original patent No. 1,672,037, on an application filed March 12,1924.

The original applications of Ballantine and Parker were thus co-pending. Both parties rely upon the disclosures in their original, applications. Ballantine, as is above shown, was the senior party. He took no testimony and relied upon his filing date as the basis for his claim of priority.

[800]*800On May 28, 1930, Parker filed application for reissue of his said patent No. 1,672,037. In due course certain of the new claims were rejected on Ballantine’s original patent No. 1,723,719. Six days after Ballantine’s reissued patent was granted, Parker, in his reissue application, copied three of the claims appearing in the Ballantine reissued patent and an interference was duly declared on the said three claims as counts of the interference.

Ballantine moved for dissolution of the interference on the ground, among others, that the counts were not supported by the disclosure of Parker’s original application. The Primary Examiner, after lieai’ing the arguments, held that Parker could not make two of the claims but that he could make one of them — the claim corresponding to the count of this interference. Parker took no appeal as to the ruling on the two first-above-referred to claims and proceeded to take testimony to support his allegations as to priority of the single count here involved.

The Examiner of Interferences held that there being no new evidence before him which was not before the Primary Examiner, he was precluded, under rule 130, from ruling on the question of dissolution on the ground that Parker could not make the claim. The Examiner of Interferences held that the proof submitted by Parker warranted granting him priority on the count.

Upon appeal, the Board of Appeals, after carefully considering the Parker disclosure, concluded that the invention of the count at bar was not disclosed in Parker’s original application and that Parker could not make the claim. The board furthermore held, after considering the Parker testimony, that if it was subsequently held that Parker could make the claim, it was of the opinion that the testimony adduced

.does not necessarily conform to the application disclosure, i. e., if the results .here involved were attained, it is conceivable that they are attained by a procedure corresponding to that taught by Ballantine rather than that taught by Parker.

The single count of the interference reads as follows:

1. In an electrical communication system, the combination with a high frequency amplifier of side band modulated carrier energy and means impressing upon an amplification-control circuit of said amplifier a direct current potential appropriate for the normal amplification of relatively weak carrier energy, of means effective automatically to reduce the amplification of said amplifier as the carrier strength increases, said second means comprising a rectifier, means transmitting to said rectifier the modulated carrier output of said amplifier, and circuit elements for superposing upon said direct current potential a second potential derived from said rectifier and varying in magnitude with the rectified modulated carrier energy.

[801]*801Both parties are in agreement that the invention of the count is predicated upon a combination of elements which constitute an electrical communication system which system involves “means effective automatically to reduce the amplification of said amplifier as the carrier strength increases.” As we understand it, the gist of the invention in the combination forming the communication system rests in automatically reducing amplification of the amplifier as the strength of the carrier wave or signal increases, and we find it unnecessary to consider any other feature of the count. Other questions are discussed in the briefs of the parties, but in view of our conclusion that Parker in his original application made no disclosure of this feature, it is unnecessary for us to deal more than superficially with any other phase of the question.

Appellant states that he has concurring conclusions by the Primary Examiner and the Examiner of Interferences on his right to make the count. Under the facts hereinbefore stated, we think that this statement is inaccurate.

The object of Parker’s original invention as stated in his patent No. 1,612,037 was the amplification of electrical currents, particularly the amplification of high frequency electrical currents modulated at low or audible frequency. He states:

A particular object of tbe invention is tbe efficient amplification of tbe currents at bigb frequency and having so amplified tbe currents to reduce them to low frequencies and further amplifying tbe low frequency currents in tbe presence of the high frequency currents, using the same amplifying devices for the dual function.

For the purpose of obtaining this efficient amplification, Parker used a biasing battery (commonly known as a “C” battery) by which the grids of his amplifier tubes were worked “at a most efficient potential for amplification.” [Italics ours.]

It will be seen that if Parker was seeking to get the best amplification obtainable, as his phrase “at a most efficient potential for amplification” would seem to indicate, he could not have had in mind the automatic reduction of amplification as the carrier strength increased, and there is no indication that he aimed to supplement the normal bias on the radio-frequency tubes in such a manner as to cut down signal strength.

The Primary Examiner, in refusing to dissolve the interference as to count 1 at bar, stated that the count must be held to define that which is inherent in the system and that it was possible that Parker’s original patent showed that his system would operate in the manner of the count. He said:

* * * Parker’s original claims on thé structure of the system defined one, such that there might well he a reduction of certain amplification consistently [802]*802with the broad statement regarding amplification, and in fact, as above noted, this count will actually read onto the system which such claims cover. Under these circumstances this count must be held to define that which is inherent in the system. * * * [Italics ours.]

The Board of Appeals, in passing upon the question of whether Parker could make the count, said:

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Bluebook (online)
101 F.2d 220, 26 C.C.P.A. 799, 40 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 360, 1939 CCPA LEXIS 85, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parker-v-ballantine-ccpa-1939.