Simmon Omega, Inc. v. United States

83 Cust. Ct. 14, 1979 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1148
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedAugust 7, 1979
DocketC.D. 4815; Court No. 71-12-02126
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 83 Cust. Ct. 14 (Simmon Omega, Inc. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Customs Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Simmon Omega, Inc. v. United States, 83 Cust. Ct. 14, 1979 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1148 (cusc 1979).

Opinion

Newman, Judge:

Plaintiff challenges the classification by customs of certain phototypesetting machines imported from West Germany in 1969, 1970, and 1971. The machines were classified as “Other [photographic] enlargers” and assessed with duty at the rate of 10 or 9 per centum ad valorem, depending upon the date of entry, under item 722.18, TSUS, as modified by T.D. 68-9.1 Plaintiff claims that the imports are entitled to entry free of duty under the provision in item 668.25, TSUS, for typesetting machines.

I have concluded that plaintiff’s claim should be sustained.

Statutes Involved

Tariff Schedules of the United States, 19 U.S.C. 1202:

Classified under [schedule 7, part 2, subpart F]:

Photographic cameras (other than motion-picture cameras), photographic enlargers, and combination camera-enlargers:
* * * * *

722.18 Other enlargers and camera-enlargers_

[9%, 10% ad val. depending on date of entry]

Claimed under [schedule 6, part 4, subpart D]: Part 4 headnotes:

1. This part does not cover—
* * * * * * *
[17]*17(v) articles and parts of articles specifically provided for elsewhere in the schedules.

668.25 Linotype and typesetting machines, and

parts thereof_ Free

The Record

The record in this case comprises the testimony of two witnesses on behalf of plaintiff and one witness on behalf of defendant. Plaintiff’s witnesses were Lawrence D. Klein, training manager for Berthold of North America, a subsidiary of H. Berthold, A.G. of Germany, manufacturer of the imported machines, and Kenneth Harlan Owen, products specialist for Berkey Marketing Cos. Defendant called Joseph D. Fielder, an instructor in graphic arts and related subjects at New York City Community College.

Each party submitted various exhibits.

The pertinent facts are:

In controversy are two machines sold under the names of “Staro-mat” and “Starsettograph.” The Staromat and its less automatic counterpart, the Starsettograph, are phototypesetters designed to generate headline or display type, viz, type of one fourth inch in size or larger. Each machine has an upright bar affixed to the rear of a platform to which is attached a platen. The platen is in the shape of a shallow tray and is designed to hold sensitized paper or film bathed in developer fluid.2 The platen can be swiveled, and can be moved from side to side and from front to back on geared rollers, according to markings calibrated in millimeters for precise settings.

Clamped to the upright bar is the head of the machine, containing a projection lamp, the light from which passes through a series of condenser lenses and mirrors to sharpen it, and then through a shutter mechanism containing 'a red filter. Below this point, the head of the machine contains a specially designed carrier with a slot on either side into which may be inserted a “font” 2 inches wide and 30 inches long,3 consisting of a strip of acetate encased in clear plastic. The font contains upper- and lower-case alphabets, punctuation, numerals, and symbols. Below each letter on the font is a “foundry bar” (a bracket turned on its side) that aids the operator in proper spacing of the type.

In addition to using the foundry bars, proper spacing of the type characters is achieved by means of a millimetric ruler that is on the front of the machine, or by use of his eye the operator can place a letter any distance from the preceding letter. The font carrier has guides, [18]*18pressure fingers, and rollers designed to hold the long strip font firmly under tension, and to allow the operator to move the font from side to side through the carrier by means of a crank to select the desired letters on the font. A lever automatically shifts the carrier forward or backward for setting upper- or lower-case letters. The carrier will accept only the fonts specifically made for it by the manufacturer of the machines, and thus will not accept photographic negatives or slides in the ordinary range of sizes. In this connection, plaintiff’s witness Owen knew of no carriers in photographic enlargers that would accept the type font used with the instant machines and move it with precision from one letter to another (R.123).

Type is set or composed with the Staromat and Starsettograph in the following manner: The operator inserts the type font into the special carrier in the head of the machine. He then places a sheet of photosensitive paper or film on the platen, moistens it with an activating fluid, turns on the lamp (which remains on until the entire job is completed),4 and shifts the font to select the first letter. An image of the first letter is projected through the red filter and appears on the sensitized typesetting paper or film, which is not sensitive to red light. Guided by this trial image, the operator raises or lowers the head to control the size of the letter being projected, and moves the platen by a lever to position the type image on the photosensitive paper in accordance with his design. For example, the platen is moved forward or backward to set one line of type over another in a headline comprised of two lines. Platen movement is calibrated in 1-millimeter increments, “so that positions can be gotten back to again, if you have to reproduce the job” (R. 51).

The letters on the font (exhibit 4) are five-sixteenths inch, and can be used without enlargement or reduction. To set larger or smaller type, the head of the machines must be raised or lowered. Thus, through enlargement or reduction of the characters on a single font, there is an infinite choice of type sizes available ranging from approximately %2 to 5}í inches.

So that the composed type will reproduce well in the various stages of printing, the machines adjust focus and exposure in relation to the size of the type being set, to obtain the. sharpest and blackest image possible. The Staromat performs this function automatically by means of an electronic control box that is part of the machine as imported. The Starsettograph also performs this function, but not automatically.

"When the type is correctly positioned and the operator triggers an exposure, the red filter automatically swings out of the way so that [19]*19light projects through the font onto the photosensitive paper or film.5 The light goes through only the letter or symbol on the font that is brought into position, which would be an area approximating three-eighths by one-half inch.

The imported machines are designed to utilize a patented photo-composing process (exhibit B), the essence of which is to permit the optical control of letter positioning during the photographic setting— “that is, the operator can visually watch the formation of a word through single letters, as in writing, and can regulate the positioning of the various letters” (exhibit B, col. 1, lines 16-18). The image of a letter begins to develop immediately on the phototypesetting paper or film because of the special activator fluid in the platen.

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Bluebook (online)
83 Cust. Ct. 14, 1979 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 1148, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/simmon-omega-inc-v-united-states-cusc-1979.