Trico Products Corp. v. Roberk Co.

369 F. Supp. 1146, 178 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 589, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15116
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedJanuary 31, 1973
DocketCiv. No. B-323
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 369 F. Supp. 1146 (Trico Products Corp. v. Roberk 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
Trico Products Corp. v. Roberk Co., 369 F. Supp. 1146, 178 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 589, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15116 (D. Conn. 1973).

Opinion

RULING ON MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

BLUMENFELD, Chief Judge.

Trico Products Corporation, assignee of Emory W. Lenz and Anthony C. Scinta, instituted this action against the Roberk Company charging it with infringement of U.S. Patent No. 3,153,254 (hereinafter Lenz patent) issued to it on October 20, 1964, for an alleged invention entitled “Windshield Wiper.”

The defendant denied infringement and counterclaimed for a declaration that the Lenz patent is invalid on two grounds: (1) that it is not non-obvious in view of the prior art; and (2) that its claims are overly broad. The court has jurisdiction of this suit under the patent laws of the United States. 35 U. S.C. §§ 271, 281 and 28 U.S.C. § 1338.

The defendant has moved for summary judgment. The file wrapper in the Lenz application, depositions, and prior art patents have been filed. The parties [1148]*1148have submitted' briefs and have been heard in oral argument.

Introduction

Charges in the complaint to the effect that the defendant had infringed by making and/or selling windshield wipers embodying the plaintiff’s patent were later refined to a narrower charge of infringement by reason of defendant’s business in wiper blade refill units.

The patent is for a replaceable blade assembly for use in automobile windshield wipers which can be inserted and removed from an associated wiper superstructure without the use of tools and without disassembling any parts of the superstructure. Although direct infringement of claims 5, 7 and 8 of the patent, and contributory infringement of claims 1-4 and 6, were alleged, this was particularized by claim 7.1 Accordingly, claim 7 typifies the issue. It reads as follows:

“7. A refill unit for a windshield wiper comprising a wiping element, a backing strip for mounting said wiping element and a latch element on said backing strip secured against substantial relative longitudinal movement with respect to said backing strip, said latch element comprising a pair of legs resiliently connected to each other, said legs straddling a portion of said wiping element, at least one of said legs being provided with a notch therein forming a pair of opposing shoulders for receiving a claw of a wiper superstructure in resilient latching engagement between said pair of opposing shoulders, said legs being manually depressible to permit displacement of said notch from said claw.”

It should be noted at the outset that, despite the breadth of the claim to a replaceable windshield wiper, the Lenz patent describes “all of the foregoing parts except the latch number 29” as “being substantially of conventional production types.” (Col. 2, lines 62-67). Thus, while the real necessity is to concentrate attention on the latch element, that may be more readily understood if preceded by a brief description of the other elements.

The “wiping element” is the rubber blade or squeegee, the lip of which has direct contact with the face of the windshield. It tapers outward from the lip to the head, but just below the head there are a pair of matching grooves in the opposite sides of the blade extending for its full length and leaving a flexible neck. The “backing strip” may be either two metal splines which nest into the grooves, stapled together at their ends, or a one piece elongated metal collar. The backing strip extends for the full length of the blade.

The “blade assembly,” consisting of the wiping element, backing strip, and latch, is threaded through the “claws” of a holder at the end of the arm of the wiper superstructure to mount the blade into working position, leaving the lower portion and edge of the blade free to press on the surface of the windshield. The backing strip is flexible, vertically, against the windshield, but not transversely. However, since the claw does not clamp down on the blade assembly, but only slidingly and embracingly engages it, relatively free movement of the wiper blade in the plane substantially perpendicular to the face of the windshield is permitted. And, since the assembled blade, after being threaded through the claws, is only loosely located in its working position in the superstructure, some means of securing it in that position is necessary. The latch element serves that purpose.

Infringement

The infringement issue here is presented by the defendant’s contention that the latch structure in its refill unit [1149]*1149falls outside the bounds of the one claimed in the plaintiff’s patent.

The manner in which the accused and the patented latch members are integrated into the refill unit is quite similar, and presents no contested issue. Both are struck out of resilient thin gauge, stainless steel. This resiliency enables them to function as spring clips. Both may be inserted at one end of the assembly, and both are two-legged in order to straddle the neck of the blade. The patented latch may be incorporated into the refill unit by sandwiching it between the body portion of the blade and the underside of the backing strip, or between the head portion of the blade and the topside of the backing strip. The accused latch has a special doubled-over structure at the top of its legs which fits over the end of the backing strip — thus the flat legs are sandwiched between the underside of the backing strip and the body portion of the blade, and the doubled-over part is sandwiched between the upper portion of the backing strip and the underside of the head of the blade. So much for the way in which the respective latches are incorporated into a refill unit.

Concern here is not with how the latch element, referred to by De Pew 2,983,945 as the “keeper means” and by Krohm 2,782,446 as the “locking means,” is held to the backed blade as a sub-assembly but with how, thereafter, it latches the whole blade assembly to the superstructure.

To put it very simply, the latch element functions as a spring clip. The legs in the plaintiff's device, which spread a little too wide to freely slide through the inner width of the claw, are compressed together laterally by pressure of fingers on the tabs upturned at the outer side of the upper part of the legs and pushed through the claw until a “notch” in “at least one of said legs” is reached. At that point, the resilient legs are allowed to expand laterally and snap back to their original position so that the notch receives “a claw of a wiper superstructure in resilient latching engagement between said pair of opposing shoulders.” The refill unit is easily removable in the same way.

Whether the defendant’s accused device infringes upon the plaintiff’s patented “keeper means” must be resolved in the context of the applicable law of patent infringement. I turn to that before considering whether the difference between them is sufficient to require a judgment of non-infringement.

In determining whether the defendant’s accused device infringes, one of the fundamental tenets of the patent law is that nothing can infringe unless it trespasses on a claim. As Mr. Justice Brown explained in McClain v. Ortmayer, 141 U.S. 419, 425, 12 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
369 F. Supp. 1146, 178 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 589, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15116, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trico-products-corp-v-roberk-co-ctd-1973.