The Spee-Flo Manufacturing Corp. v. Binks Manufacturing Co.

264 F. Supp. 542, 153 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 120, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11367
CourtDistrict Court, D. Texas
DecidedFebruary 21, 1967
DocketCiv. A. No. 64-H-95
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 264 F. Supp. 542 (The Spee-Flo Manufacturing Corp. v. Binks Manufacturing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
The Spee-Flo Manufacturing Corp. v. Binks Manufacturing Co., 264 F. Supp. 542, 153 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 120, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11367 (texd 1967).

Opinion

OPINION

SINGLETON, District Judge.

The above entitled and numbered cause, having been tried before the Court without a jury, at the close of the evidence and after hearing arguments of counsel, this Court adopts the following opinion as its findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Plaintiff, Spee-Flo Manufacturing Corporation (Spee-Flo), a Texas corporation, is engaged in the manufacture and sale of spray painting equipment and has its principal place of business in Houston, Texas. Defendant, Binks Manufacturing Company (Binks), a Delaware corporation, is also engaged in the manufacture and sale of spray painting equipment and has its principal place of business in Chicago, Illinois.

The complaint is brought under the Patent laws of the United States, Title 35 U.S.Code, and under Title 28 U.S.C. §§ 1338(a) and 1400(b).

Spee-Flo is the owner of the patent in this suit. The patent was granted September 19, 1961, on an application by Gustave S. Levey and Stanton F. Harvey for a “spray gun” for use in airless spray painting. The patent is No. 3,000,576. Spee-Flo alleges infringement of claims 1 to 6, inclusive, and 8 of the patent.

Jurisdiction and venue have been stipulated.

The complaint seeks a permanent injunction and damages for the alleged infringement. The complaint also seeks exemplary damages on the grounds that the alleged infringement is willful and flagrant. The validity of the patent is not in issue in this case. Binks asserts as its defenses to the complaint (1) the scope of the patent, (2) the lack of infringement by Binks’ devices, and (3) as affecting these two issues, new prior art patents, publications and public uses not presented in the prior litigation set out below.

The patent in question was the subject of a similar action tried in this District in 1964, Spee-Flo Manufacturing Corp. v. Gray Co., Inc., 237 F.Supp. 616, 617 and 255 F.Supp. 618. In that case Chief Judge Connally held the patent valid, and that the claims in controversy, i. e., claims 1 to 6 inclusive, and 8, were valid; that Gray Company had infringed each of claims 1, 2, 3, and 8, and had induced infringement of, and [544]*544was guilty of contributory infringement of, claims 4, 5, and 6. Chief Judge Connally’s opinion was affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in an opinion by Chief Judge Tuttle reported in 361 F.2d 489.

Chief Judge Connally, in his original opinion and in his supplemental opinion in the Gray Company case, fully and completely describes the patent, the background leading up to the invention, the operation of the device (spray gun) and the contribution this device made to the business of spray painting. For this reason, this Court does not feel it is necessary to again detail these factual aspects of the case.

The thrust of Binks’ approach in the case before this Court is that the Gray Company case should not be followed here because evidence relating to prior art devices were offered here which were not offered in the Gray Company case and based upon this evidence this Court should hold that the scope of Spee-Flo’s device should be restrained within the narrow limits solely affecting a pre-orifice with an axial length at least twice its diameter. In other words, what is sought here is a re-argument and a reconsideration of the Gray Company case in the light of the prior art evidence offered here and in the light of evidence relating to the limited scope of Spee-Flo’s device. Miles v. Matthews, 171 F.2d 38 (5th Cir., 1948).

A brief summary of the spray gun in question is necessary. The result sought was to find a way of spraying paint with an airless spray gun that would give a uniform and consistent spray pattern. This result was particularly important with respect to fine finishing. The invention of the patent in this case resulted from an accidental discovery by the patentees that a decrease in the pressure in the chamber between the valve and the spray nozzle in an airless spray gun resulted in an improved spray pattern. One method of accomplishing this decrease in pressure was by mounting a “pre-orifice,” having a hole substantially equal in area to the area of the nozzle opening, between the valve and the nozzle opening. There are different ways of supporting the pre-orifice. One way, and the method employed by Spee-Flo in commercializing this device, is to contain the pre-orifice as an integral part of the valve member. Another way, and the way employed by Binks, is to contain the pre-orifice in a removable disc, the disc being secured between the valve member and the nozzle. Spee-Flo also has a patent claim covering this method of mounting the pre-orifice.

The use of a pre-orifice in a device similar to Spee-Flo’s device was not within itself new; however, pre-patent pre-orifice devices were generally much larger in cross-sectional area than the spray orifice, and with the pre-orifice much larger in cross-sectional area than the spray orifice, paint reached the spray orifice under high pressure and with low velocity and was accelerated in the nozzle opening to the high velocity and low pressure of the spray fan. This resulted in the formation of a vena con-tracta at the discharge site of the spray nozzle.

A vena contracta is described in Webster’s Dictionary as “Any of the contracted parts of minimum cross section of a jet of fluid discharging from an orifice, especially the one nearest the orifice.” To this Court, with respect to this case, the vena contracta caused an over-concentration of paint as the paint came out of the spray nozzle, resulting in a non-uniform application of paint on the object being spray painted. In order to accomplish the desired results, this vena contracta had to be eliminated at the spray nozzle opening. The patentees found that when the pre-orifice was reduced to approximately the same size as the spray orifice, the paint moved through the pre-orifice with a reduced pressure and an increased velocity and in the form of a submerged jet and traveled through the chamber as a submerged jet until it reached the spray orifice. The vena contracta was eliminated at the spray nozzle opening and was formed instead at the pre-orifice [545]*545back in the chamber. Uniform and complete atomization was thus achieved and the desired feather-edged spray pattern resulted.

This Court agrees with Chief Judge Connally that the real contribution of the Spee-Flo invention was the ascertainment and recognition of the fact that, if the pre-orifice is reduced in area to approximately the same area as the spray orifice, the desired improvement in the spray pattern is accomplished. Spee-Flo Mfg. Corp. v. Gray Co., Inc., supra, 237 F.Supp. 616, 617, 619 (1964).

Binks, in August of 1960, started selling a pre-orifice disc described as a “sapphire spray insert.” This insert consisted of a plastic washer containing a brass cup supported at its center, with a watch jewel having a small central hole through it supported in the brass cup. The brass cup has a cylindrical portion projecting forwardly from the washer and fitting in a retainer ring secured in the spray nozzle immediately behind the carbide tip having the elongated sharp-edged spray opening therein.

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264 F. Supp. 542, 153 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 120, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11367, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-spee-flo-manufacturing-corp-v-binks-manufacturing-co-texd-1967.