Read Mfg. Co. v. Hobart Mfg. Co.

263 F. 713, 1920 U.S. App. LEXIS 2093
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedJanuary 14, 1920
DocketNo. 118
StatusPublished

This text of 263 F. 713 (Read Mfg. Co. v. Hobart Mfg. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Read Mfg. Co. v. Hobart Mfg. Co., 263 F. 713, 1920 U.S. App. LEXIS 2093 (2d Cir. 1920).

Opinion

MANTON, Circuit Judge.

This suit is for an infringement of letters patent No. 966,765, granted to the appellee’s assignor on August 9, 1910. The patent is for a mixing machine. Application therefor was filed on January 14, 1909. Claims 6 and 10 are said to be infringed and read as follows:

6. A cake dough mixing machine, comprising a standard, a bowl, a bowl support movably mounted thereon, a vertical screw engaging said bowl support for adiusling the position thereof, a beater, a main shaft, an auxiliary shaft parallel with the main shaft, speed changing gears interposed between the main shaft, and the auxiliary shaft and a mechanism whereby the gears of one [714]*714shaft may be shifted and brought into and out of engagement with the gears of the other shaft to alter the speed of the beater.
10. In a dough mixer, a standard,' a bowl, a bowl support movably mounted thereon, a vertical screw engaging said bowl support for adjusting the position thereof, a beater adapted to operate within the bowl, means for rotating the beater upon its axis and moving the same in a circular path in said bowl, • a main drive shaft, an auxiliary shaft arranged parallel to the main shaft, complementary speed change gears mounted on the main auxiliary shafts, and means for selectively combining said gears in operative relation.

In his specifications, the inventor says:

The present invention relates to a cake-mixing machine, and particularly to cake-mixing machines of relatively large size and of that type adapted to be operated by power.
The object of t&e present invention is to improve the mechanical construction of such cake-mixing machines, and in particular to provide an efficient and effectively disposed mechanism for operating the beater, a mechanism for changing the speed of rotation of the beater in mixing batches of material of varying consistency, a mechanism whereby the machine is stopped when it is desired to change the speed, and in means for moving the bowl into and out of engagement with the beater.
The various features of novelty wnich characterize my invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specification.

And further in his specification he says:

The construction illustrated and described possesses advantageous features.' Among the parts may be mentioned the ease with which the parts may be constructed and assembled and thereafter adjusted, and the compactness and simplicity of the cake mixer as a whole. In a cake mixer of this type it is desirable, not only that the speed should vary in order to facilitate the working of batches of goods of greater or less consistency, but also as a means of gradually furthering the process of aeration of certain kinds of goods required to be exceedingly light and spongy.

The patent in suit has been heretofore considered and held valid and infringed. Read Mach. Co. v. Jaburg (D. C.) 212 Fed. 951, affirmed 218 Fed. 989, 133 C. C. A. 672; Id. (D. C.) 221 Fed. 662, affirmed 223 Fed. 1022, 138 C. C. A. 659.

The defense interposed in this action contends:

First. That giving due respect and consideration to such decisions, the claims cannot be considered more broadly than in the former litigation and cannot include the appellant’s construction, and are invalid and void for aggregation and noninvention; and
Second. That a proper construction of the claims, having due regard for the former decisions, are so limited that they are not infringed by the appellant’s construction.

The appellee’s invention has given a practical advantage to the art and trade, that is to say, in the saving of labor, cleanliness, and expedition, economy in materials; also its adaptability for use with mixtures of varying consistencies as used in bake shops. It was held in the decision heretofore referred to that the patent was a combination of generically old elements; that, under the well-established doctrine, the parts or elements were so arranged as to unite in producing a novel and useful result; and that the combination, as a whole, was patentable. The court further held that the machine of the defendant [715]*715there (Jahurg) operated as did the appellee’s machine; that is to say, that: “when the operator turns the handle, the path of the power from the flywheel to the beater is broken, and the power is interrupted for the instant required to change the speed”; and, further, that “the machine is not stopped for part of it is still in motion, although there is an interruption of the operation of the heater, very slight, and apparently of little consequence in the performance of the work.’’

Patents of the prior art were submitted in the previous litigation as a defense, and were considered in Read Mach. Co. v. Jaburg (D. C.) 221 Fed. 662, and there 5.1 was pronounced that the appellee’s claims were entitled to a liberal range of equivalents, and that the patent was not anticipated. In this litigation, the same prior ait has been introduced as in Read v. Jaburg (D. C.) 221 Red. 662; but counsel for the appellant very earnestly argues that, reconsidering the patents of the prior art as applying to the appellant’s construction, the elements constitute an aggregation, and not a combination, and arc not patentable. We are satisfied to adhere to the conclusions of this court heretofore readied in Read Mach. Co. v. Jaburg, supra, in sustaining the appellee’s contention-that the dements used in the Read machine are a combination of elements and not an aggregation of elements, and that none of the patents of the prior art here invoked by the appellants can be said to anticipate the patent in suit. We agree that the combination of the elements, as proven, is an extremely valuable contribution to this art; that it saves labor, economizes material, protects the operator, and produces a clean, sanitary machine. It has achieved a great success, and has commanded a large sale.

We find nothing in the decision of Grinnell Washing Mfg. Co. v. Johnson Co., 247 U. S. 426, 38 Sup. Ct 547, 62 L. Ed. 1196, which would require a different result than that reached by this court heretofore. As was said by the court there, it is not always easy to decide the question of aggregation or combination; but the court recognized the rule which is a guide to such determination when it said:

“Generally speaking, a. combination of old elements, in order to be patentable, must produce by tlieir joint action a novel and useful result, or an old result in a more advantageous way. To arrive at the distinction between combinations and aggregations, definite reference must bo liad to the decisions of this court.”

The Supreme Court decisions point out that the result must be the product of the combination, and not a mere aggregation of several results, each the complete product of one of the combined elements. It is the production of something novel, after bringing together the old devices and allowing them to work in juxtaposition, which makes for the invention.

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Related

Grinnell Washing MacHine Co. v. E. E. Johnson Co.
247 U.S. 426 (Supreme Court, 1918)
Read Machinery Co. v. Jaburg
212 F. 951 (S.D. New York, 1914)
Read Mach. Co. v. Jaburg
221 F. 662 (S.D. New York, 1915)
Read Machinery Co. v. Jaburg
223 F. 1022 (Second Circuit, 1915)

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Bluebook (online)
263 F. 713, 1920 U.S. App. LEXIS 2093, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/read-mfg-co-v-hobart-mfg-co-ca2-1920.