Stromberg Motor Devices Co. v. Zenith Detroit Corp.

60 F.2d 1074, 1932 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1414
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJuly 22, 1932
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 60 F.2d 1074 (Stromberg Motor Devices Co. v. Zenith Detroit Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stromberg Motor Devices Co. v. Zenith Detroit Corp., 60 F.2d 1074, 1932 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1414 (S.D.N.Y. 1932).

Opinion

COXE, District Judge.

This ease arises on exceptions to a master’s report in a patent accounting. The patent involved is the Mock patent, No. 1,404,-879, for a carburetor, which issued January 31, 1922, and was held valid and infringed as to claim 4 by the Circuit Court of Appeals in Stromberg Motor Devices Co. v. Zenith-Detroit Corp’n, 25 F.(2d) 567.

On the accounting, the plaintiff claimed profits only, and, after prolonged hearings before the master, it was found that the defendant’s profits from infringing sales were $277,420.58. It was held, however, that, notwithstanding this fact, there could be no recovery by the plaintiff because of a failure to apportion as between the patented and [1075]*1075unpatented features. The plaintiff has excepted to this ruling. It has also excepted to the allowance by the master of deductions from profits of (1) $15,060.57 for extra compensation paid to the defendant’s president, and (2) $97,377 for patent royalties paid to the Drench parent company of the defendant. In addition, the defendant has filed exceptions, challenging rulings of the master denying credit on the accounting for (1) federal taxes paid, (2) amounts expended by the defendant in defense of litigation on the Ensign patent, and (3) bad debts charged off amounting to $16,821.86.

The report qii the disputed points is full and complete, and, inasmuch as I agree with the master’s conclusions on all questions except on the necessity for apportionment, I shall confine myself to the single question whether the master was right in denying relief to the plaintiff because of the failure to apportion. In all other respects, the exceptions will be overt uled.

The defendant, on the argument, and in its brief, has sought also to question rulings of the master in drawing into the accounting two altered structures containing modifications of the infringing carburetor; but, inasmuch as no exceptions were taken to these rulings, I do not think they are open for review at this time.

The master’s argument on the question of apportionment is in effeet that claim 4 covers only a sub-eombination in the larger combination of parts comprising the carburetor, and that there must be apportionment between the patented and unpatented features. He also bolds that it is the duty of the plaintiff to make the apportionment, and that, inasmuch as it has not done so, there can be no recovery. The contention of the plaintiff, on the other hand, proceeds on the theory that the patent is for a unitary device, and that the entire salable value of the infringing carburetor is in the Mock invention. It is further insisted that, if an apportionment should be required, it should be made by the defendant, and that, the defendant having failed to supply the requisite information from which such an apportionment might bo made, the plaintiff is entitled to recover the entire profits.

Claim 4 of the patent reads: “In a carburetor, a carbureting chamber having a mixture outlet, a venturi tube leading to said carbureting chamber, a second venturi tube leading into said first named venturi tube, said venturi tubes having their axes substantially eo-ineident and having air inlets thereto, a fuel inlet leading into said second venturi tube, and means for admitting air to said fuel inlet anterior to its point of discharge into second venturi tube.”

In describing the invention, Judge Man-ton used the following language in the opinion in the Circuit Court of Appeals, Stromberg Motor Devices Co. v. Zenith-Detroit Corp’n, supra, page 568 of 25 F.(2d): “The gist of the invention in suit is the combination of a coaxial double venturi with a fuel inlet which leads into the inner one and which has means for the admission of air thereto anterior to its point of discharge therein, be that fuel inlet single or compound.”

The opinion also states, at page 568 of 25 F.(2d), in answer to the contention that the patent was invalid for aggregation: “The devices used were reproportioned, and they gave combined or co-operative effects. It was no mere addition of an extra venturi. There was readjustment and repropo.rtionment to secure proper combined effect from co-operation of the different features.”

It will thus he seen that, although the pat-entee utilized old parts of existing structures, he accomplished an entirely new and beneficial result in designing a carburetor capable of functioning with the two venturis. That the patent was for a carburetor, and did not cover merely a subeo.mbination of some of the operating parts, is emphasized by the language of the patent itself. The patentee first refers to his invention as an “Improvement in carburetors.” He then states that the invention “relates to carburetors,” and that his object is “to provide a carburetor” which will supply the engine with “a mixture with the most efficient proportions of air and fuel.” And, finally, the specification is framed on the theory that the invention is a unitary structure of a carburetor, and not merely a collection of subsidiary parts. That also appears to be the thought of the Circuit Court of Appeals, for in Judge Manton’s opinion the patent is referred to as “for a carburetor,” and the invention as covering a “carburetor.” Moreover, the decree directing the accounting provides that it “shall cover all forms of carburetors or similar devices.”

The invention made by Mock not only permeated and pervaded the entire structure of the carburetor, but it created something which could only he used as an integer. In that respect, the device is similar to the converter in Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co. v. Wagner Electric & Mfg. Co., 225 U. S. 604, 32 S. Ct. 691, 56 L. Ed. 1222, 41 L. R. A. (N. S.) 653, the counter seat in Yesbera [1076]*1076v. Hardesty Mfg. Co. (C. C. A.) 166 F. 120, and the multiple drill in Oehring v. Fox Typewriter Co. (C. C. A.) 251 F. 584. It is also closely analogous to the store service ladder in Orr & Lockett Hardware Co. v. Murray (C. C. A.) 163 F. 54, and the wooden pavement in Elizabeth v. American Nicholson Paving Co., 97 U. S. 126, 24 L. Ed. 1000, both of which were held to be complete unitary things. The eases of Garretson v. Clark, 111 U. S. 120, 4 S. Ct. 291, 28 L. Ed. 371, Dowagiac Mfg. Co. v. Minnesota Moline Plow Co., 235 U. S. 641, 35 S. Ct. 221, 59 L. Ed. 398, Egry Register Co. v. Standard Register Co. (C. C. A.) 23 F.(2d) 438, and Underwood Typewriter Co. v. E. C. Stearns & Co. (C. C. A.) 227 F. 74, are not applicable, as they involved only attachments or minor improvements in existing structures, which contributed little of real value to the different articles.

The defendant insists, however, that claim 4 omits some of the essential parts of a carburetor, such as the float, float-chamber, and idle, and that, therefore these must be deemed to be excluded from the combination of the claim. But it is a familiar rule of patent law that elements may be implied to make the device operable. McCarty v. Lehigh Valley R. Co., 160 U. S. 110, 16 S. Ct. 240, 40 L. Ed. 358; Dunn Mfg. Co. v. Standard Computing Scale Co. (C. C. A.) 204 F. 617.

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Bluebook (online)
60 F.2d 1074, 1932 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1414, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stromberg-motor-devices-co-v-zenith-detroit-corp-nysd-1932.