Sidney Blumenthal & Co. v. Salt's Textile Mfg. Co.

21 F.2d 470, 1927 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1394
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedAugust 12, 1927
DocketNos. 1817, 1819
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 21 F.2d 470 (Sidney Blumenthal & Co. v. Salt's Textile Mfg. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sidney Blumenthal & Co. v. Salt's Textile Mfg. Co., 21 F.2d 470, 1927 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1394 (D. Conn. 1927).

Opinion

THOMAS, District Judge.

In the first suit, No. 1817, which was brought on September 3, 1925, the Blumenthal Company charges the Salt’s Company with infringement of two process patents, one to Stolzenherg, No. I, 521,259, issued December 30, 1924, and one to Blumenthal, No. 1,548,819, issued August II, 1925, as well as three design patents all issued to Gowans, the first on December 2, 1924, No. 66,119, the second on May 12, 1925, No. 67,279, and the third issued on September 8, 1925, No. 68,138. All of these patents were issued to the Blumenthal Company as assignee of the respective inventors. The Blumenthal Company also charges the Salt’s Company with unfair competition.

In the second suit, No. 1819, which was brought October 8, 1925, the .Salt’s Company charges the Blumenthal Company with infringement of the Steiner patent, No. 1,069,-588, issued August 5, 1913, and purchased by the Salt’s Company on September 16, 1925, very soon after it was sued by the Blumenthal Company,

Since the party plaintiff in the first suit is party defendant in the second suit, and since the parties stipulated that the testimony and exhibits in one case should be used in the other, and as both eases were tried together, they will be discussed and decided in one opinion.

The subject-matter of both suits relates to fabrics made to imitate fur blankets of the type comprising a plurality of small animal pelts secured together.

In the case of the Blumenthal Company against the Salt’s Company the Stolzenherg patent, No. 1,521,259, relates to a process for imitating a fur blanket of a plurality of marked fur pelts secured together. The specific method disclosed in this patent consists in producing a pile fabric having the pile fiber similar to the outstanding characteristics of the fur to be imitated and with the length and density of the pile appropriately chosen. Designs representing or imitating the characteristic markings of the individual pelts of natural fur are printed in a desired arrangement directly upon the pile of the fabric by wooden blocks or rollers. After the designs have been imparted to the pile, the fabric is laid upon a supporting surface and the pile is then subjected to treatment by a whirring device or head supported upon the rotating element of a manually guided tool. This whirring deviee is moved, as it rotates, along between the various designs printed on the piece of. fabric. The result of the action of this whirring instrument is to interrupt the lay of the pile to produce a varied effect as to the sheen and also to give the appearance of sowing between the edges of several small animal pelts made into a fur blanket. The finished article is then sold as a fabric or cloth fur blanket in imitation of a real fur blanket made from small marked pelts sewed together, and adapted to he made into robes, coats, cloaks, or garments in imitation of fur.

Claims 1 and 2 of the Stolzenherg patent are in issue. Claim 1 is as follows:

“1. A method of producing an imitation of a fur blanket composed of a plurality of pelts sewed together, which includes the following steps: Providing.a pile fabric; imparting a plurality of designs to the pile; and [472]*472disturbing the pile intermediate the designs by applying a whirring instrument thereto.”

The second claim is exactly like the first, exeept that it provides for disturbing the pile intermediate the' design “by mamially applying a whirring instrument thereto.”

The Salt’s Company contends that the Stolzenberg patent is invalid in view of prior knowledge and.publication and also because of insufficient disclosure, and to support its contention it relies upon the testimony of the patentee when he says that it was common in the art prior to the filing date of this patent to print various designs upon fabrics. The whirring instrument or head thereof used by the Blumenthal Company in its manufacture of fur fabrics is in evidence. Stolzenberg also testified that he had known of such a tool, in the art since 1912, and that the tool was used for accomplishing the same thing as is accomplished by the use of the tool in the Blumenthal Company’s carrying out of the process in suit so far as the tool itself is concerned. The head of the whirring device as used by the Blumenthal Company is heated by gas and is provided with a groove on the work face. This groove in the heated head helps to turn or flatten the pile of the fabric and tends to make a ridge or demarcation between the pelt designs printed on the pile.

The Salt’s Company also relies upon the prior art Steiner patent, No. 1,069,588, issued August 5, 1913, which discloses the. method of imitating fur blankets of sewed skins by subjecting steamed pile fabric to two sets of spaced rotating brushes having their axis of rotation parallel to the surface of the fabric. The brushes of one set lay the pile in 'stripes in one direction and the brushes of the other set lay the pile in the intervening stripes in the other direction. Then the lay of the pile between the stripes and across the stripes is disturbed by a steam jet so that there results an imitation of sewed edges between small individual pelts. The specific furs mentioned in this Steiner patent are mole and squirrel, both of which are of uniform color. There is no disclosure in this patent of printing any color design on the pile to imitate individual marked pelts. The British patent to Mills, No. 14,873 of 1895, discloses rotating tools for treating velvet. The British patent to Child, No. 21,699 of 1905, shows the use of a manually guided steam nozzle for making curls or whirls in the pile of a fabric to imitate bear skins. These patents lack the disclosure of any color design on the fabric to imitate small marked pelts.

The Salt’s Company also refers to other prior patents, to wit, United States Nos. 397,064,462,979,1,183,243; British patent No. 4,626 of 1904, and'French No. 348,616, which show various means for producing designs in the sheen of pile fabrics by disturbing the pile. The disclosures of these patents ar.e not relied upon as being especially pertinent, and they require no detailed consideration, the Salt’s Company also directs attention to and claims that the Blumenthal Company’s design patents to Gowans, Nos. 65,647 and 66,119, are prior art. Both of these patents relate to ornamental designs for fabrics. There are no specifications in these design patents which in any way describe the designs or are helpful on the question of disclosure, and therefore the illustrations alone must be considered. Each design patent shows mosaics of a repeated pattern in light and shade. It appears, however, that both parties to these suits consider these design patents as disclosing simulations of a plurality of animal pelts to imitate a fur blanket, and the Salt’s Company therefore relies upon them as showing it to be old in the art to print marked pelt designs on textiles.

’An analysis of the prior art shows that the use of the whirring device for producing effects on the sheen of pile fabric is old in the art. It was old in the art to lay the pile of cloth of a single color in striped rows and then produce imitation of sewing across and between the rows to make imitation of single color pelts. The main effect of imitation is produced by the lay of the pile of the fabric. It was old in the art to print colored designs on textiles.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
21 F.2d 470, 1927 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1394, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sidney-blumenthal-co-v-salts-textile-mfg-co-ctd-1927.