Shrauger & Johnson v. Phillip Bernard Co.

247 F. 547, 1917 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 860
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Iowa
DecidedNovember 7, 1917
DocketNo. 43
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 247 F. 547 (Shrauger & Johnson v. Phillip Bernard Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shrauger & Johnson v. Phillip Bernard Co., 247 F. 547, 1917 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 860 (N.D. Iowa 1917).

Opinion

REED, District Judge

(after stating the facts as above). After taking its preliminary proofs, the plaintiff moved for a temporary injunction restraining the defendant .during the pendency of this suit as prayed in the petition and amendment thereto, which was set for hearing before Judge Wade, who upon the hearing of such motion overruled the same. Shrauger & Johnson v. Phillip Bernard Co. (D. C.) 240 Fed. 131. Thereafter the final proofs were taken, and the cause is now before the court for final hearing upon the merits.

[ 1 ] The defendant renews its motion to dismiss the suit for want of jurisdiction of the court as to plaintiff’s claims for infringement of its alleged trade-mark, and for unfair competition in trade. So far as the suit is to recover from the defendant for the alleged infringement of-the patent, and to restrain further infringement thereof, it is not denied that so much of the suit as so claims is within the jurisdiction of this court, irrespective of the citizenship of the parties thereto. But so far as it seeks to recover for the alleged infringement of plaintiff’s trademark, and for unfair competition in trade, it is well settled that the federal courts have no jurisdiction of such controversies between citizens or corporations of the same state. Elgin National Watch Co. v. Illinois Watch Co., 179 U. S. 665, 21 Sup. Ct. 270, 45 L. Ed. 365; Warner v. Searle & Hereth Co., 191 U. S. 195, 24 Sup. Ct. 79, 48 L. Ed. 145; Leschen & Sons Rope Co. v. Broderick & Bascom Rope Co., 134 Fed. 571, 67 C. C. A. 418, affirmed 201 U. S. 166, 26 Sup. Ct. 425, 50 L. Ed. 710; Ungles-Hoggette Mfg. Co. v. Farmers’ Hog & Cattle P. Co., 232 Fed. 116, 146 C. C. A. 308.

In Leschen & Sons Rope Co. v. Broderick Co., above, both complainant and defendant were corporations of Missouri engaged in manufacturing and selling wire rope in that state. The complainant had registered a trade-mark under the act of Congress of March 3, 1881, (21 Stat. 502, c. 138), under which it claimed the right to use said trademark as indicative of its manufacture. The appellant, who was the [550]*550complainant below, filed its bill to restrain the defendant-from infringing said trade-mark. The trial court sustained a demurrer to the bill and dismissed the suit. On appeal the Court of Appeals said:

“Much is said in the brief of appellant to the effect that the defendant has been guilty of unfair trade competition by palming off on the public rope of its manufacture as complainant’s rope. This is a subject, however, over which the federal courts have, no jurisdiction. Complainant and defendant are both citizens of the same state, and for this reason jurisdiction is con-, fined to the trade-mark as registered. If that mark is invalid, the federal courts aré without authority to grant any relief on the ground of unfair trade competition.”

The court found that the trade-mark was invalid, and that the court rightly dismissed the bill, and its decree was affirmed. In affirming this decree the Supreme Court, in Leschen Rope Co., v. Broderick, 201 U. S. 166, at page 172, 26 Sup. Ct. 425, at page 427 (50 L. Ed. 710), said:

“Nor can we assume jurisdiction of this case as one wherein the defendant had made use of plaintiff’s device for the purpose of defrauding the plaintiff and palming off its goods upon the public as of the plaintiff’s manufacture. Our jurisdiction depends solely upon the question whether plaintiff has a registered trade-mark valid under the act of Congress, and for the reasons above given, we think it has not.”

And the decree of the court was affirmed.

It is unnecessary to pursue this question further, for the plaintiff has no registered trade-mark, and the suit is wholly between corporations of the same state. The defendant’s motion to dismiss the petition as to claims for infringing the plaintiff’s alleged trade-mark, and for unfair competition in trade must be and is sustained for want-of jurisdiction.

[2,3] The remaining questions are: (1) Has the plaintiff a valid patent upon its “metallic window frames” made and sold by it ? and (2) has the defendant infringed the same? As already stated, the application for the patent was filed in the Patent Office August 25, 1913; and four claims were made therein for patents upon plaintiff’s device. These four claims were all rejected by the Patent Office upon reference to the following named prior patents: Wehrle, No. 181,547, date August 29, 1876; Campbell, No. 196,784, date November 6, 1877; Durkin, No. 202,160, date April 9, 1878; Campbell et al., No. 228,443, date June 8,1880; Fitzberger, No. 463,963, date November 24, 1891; Ham, No. 614,386, date November 15, 1898; MacGregor, No. 1,002,290, date September 5, 1911; French patent, No. 423,450, date February 16, 1911. In rejecting these claims the examiner said:

“Claims 1, 2, and 3 present no invention over Durkin, Campbell et al., Campbell, Webrle, Fitzberger, or the French patent, above cited. Claim 4 merely aggregates with claim 3 the matter of the screen and specifies securing means. The addition of a screen broadly to protect any pane of glass is obvious, while the substitution for the cap-securing means of Fitzberger or French patent of devices shown to be old in Ham and MacGregor involves a mere substitution of equivalents.”

To overcome the objections thus made by the Patent Office, the applicant then presented a single claim for a patent upon his device, which claim reads as follows:

“A frame comprising one-piece frame members, having flat portions frame members having formed thereon upwardly extending supporting portions [551]*551adapted to serve as a support for a cap and screen, sj)aced downwardly extending portions forward on said supporting portions, said last described portions having upwardly opening channels formed at their lower ends, adapted to support a glass pane and carry water, a protecting screen supported on said upwardly extending portions, clamping devices extended upwardly between said upwardly and downwardly extending portions and through said screen.”

Which claim was finally allowed by the Patent Office in lieu of the four rejected claims. Of the claim so allowed, Mr. Finckel, defendant’s expert, testified that the claim is ambiguous, that it necessitates the addition of some further words in order to relieve the ambiguity, and unless the claim is so corrected it will not read upon the disclosure of the patent. The plaintiff’s expert, Mr. McEIroy, also admits in his testimony that there is an ambiguity or defect in the claim, and that it could be construed two ways. He first suggested the addition of the word “said” before the word “frame” in line 2 of the claim, and later suggested the insertion of “two or more of said” before the word “frame.”

As originally presented, the word “portions” at the beginning of line 2 was not in the claim, and of the claim as presented the Commissioner of Patents, in his letter of November 4, 1914, to counsel for the patentee, said:

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Bluebook (online)
247 F. 547, 1917 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 860, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shrauger-johnson-v-phillip-bernard-co-iand-1917.