Tripp Giant Leveller Co. v. Bresnahan

92 F. 391, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2974
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts
DecidedFebruary 9, 1899
DocketNo. 321
StatusPublished

This text of 92 F. 391 (Tripp Giant Leveller Co. v. Bresnahan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tripp Giant Leveller Co. v. Bresnahan, 92 F. 391, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2974 (circtdma 1899).

Opinion

COLT, Circuit Judge.

This is a rehearing of the suit of the Tripp Griant Leveller Company against Bresnahan and 'others, brought for infringement of the Cutcheon patent, No. 384,893, for improvements in machines for beating out the soles of boots and shoes. On March 15, 1894, after hearing upon pleadings and proofs, this court ordered a decree in favor of the complainant, adjudging the first claim of the patent valid, and infringed by the defendants, and referring the cause to a master for an account of profits and damages. The rehearing is upon the original record and additional proofs brought in by supplemental bill filed January 24,1898. The ground of the rehearing is the alleged discovery, since the original hearing and decree, of two prior patents, — the Collyer patent, No. 178,598, dated June 13, 1876; and the De Forest patent, No. 270,936, dated January 23, 1883. The supplemental bill prays that the defendants “may be permitted to interpose the said prior patents to Collyer and De Forest in defense of said original suit, as anticipations of the invention of the said Cutcheon patent, and as material to the true construction of the first claim thereof, and to the question of infringement, with the same force and effect as though said Collyer and De Forest patents had been pleaded in their answer to the bill of complaint in said original cause.”

The Cutcheon patent has been strenuously contested for the past seven years. The validity of the first claim has been four times sustained by this court, — twice on final hearing, once on motion for preliminary injunction, and once on petition for contempt. It has been twice sustained on appeal by the circuit court of appeals, — in one case on final hearing, and in the other on motion for injunction. 52 Fed. 148; 8 C. C. A. 475, 60 Fed. 80; 61 Fed. 289 ; 70 Fed. 982; 19 C. C. A. 237, 72 Fed. 920. Where a patent has been declared valid after protracted litigation, it raises a very strong presumption in its favor, and the new alleged anticipatory matter must clearly convince the court that the former decisions were wrong. If any doubt exists on this point, the former adjudications should stand. In Heaton-Peninsular Button-Fastener Co. v. Elliott Button-Fastener Co., 58 Fed. 220, 223, Mr. Justice Brown said:

“Assuming it to be a question of doubt whether the changes made in the McGill patent did involve invention, the fact that the patent has already been sustained in two other cases is sufficient of itself to turn the scale in favor of the patent.”

See, also, Vulcanite Co. v. Willis, 1 Flipp. 388, Fed. Cas. No. 5,603; Office Specialty Mfg. Co. v. Winternight & Cornyn Mfg. Co., 67 Fed. [393]*393928; Manufacturing Co. v. Spalding, 35 Fed. 67; Paper Co. v. Elsas, 65 Fed. 1001.

The first claim of the Cutcheon patent is as follows:

“(1) A machine for heating out the soles of boots and shoes, provided with two jacks, two molds, and means, substantially as described, having provision for automatically moving one jack in one direction while the other is being moved in the opposite direction, whereby the sole upon one jack will be under pressure while the other jack will be in a convenient position for the removal of the shoe therefrom.”

The meaning of this claim to my mind, is free from doubt. It seems to me to cover this: 'In a machine of this type, or a direct pressure machine, the combination of two jacks and two molds, and means, substantially as described, or their known equivalents, for automatically moving one jack in one direction while the other jack is being moved in the opposite direction, whereby the sole of the shoe upon one last will he under pressure while the other jack will he in a convenient position for the removal of the shoe therefrom. The Cutcheon machine is limited to two pressing mechanisms working automatically, in which only one pressing mechanism operates at a time to press. In the art of heating out the soles of shoes, this conception was new with Cutcheon. Any machine which makes use of this simple mechanical movement, namely, the simultaneous motions of pressure and clearance by two pressing members in opposite directions, and employs substantially the same or known equivalent means to accomplish the same result, is an infringement. Any machine which uses a different mechanical movement, or which employs substantially different means, or means which were not known equivalents at the date of the patent, does not infringe. The single section machine of Pray, and the so-called “gang machines,” which were old in the art at the date of the Cutcheon invention, are not anticipations.

Hie circuit court of appeals, in the case of Bresnahan v. Leveller Co., 19 C. C. A. 237, 241, 72 Fed. 920, 923, in affirming the decision of this court, said:

“Claim 1 of the patent in suit is a very broad one, and, as we held it valid, it would seem that no method of making the connection between the actuating jacks and the crank shaft, by means well known in the arts at the date of ihe patent, would evade it.”

The Collyer patent, which is now brought forward as an anticipation of the Cutcheon, is a gang .machine. It was for an improvement on a former patent. It describes six sets of beating-out mechanisms arranged in a common frame. The improved device substitutes, for the cam which operated upon the pressing mechanisms successively, another form of cam, which operated upon two or more of the pressing mechanisms simultaneously. The single claim of the patent is as follows:

“The frame and reciprocating jack rods and molds or dies, in combination with a cam adapted to operate the jack rods simultaneously two or more, as the frame and cam change position with relation to each other, substantially as described.”

Oollyer, in describing how he would heat out two shoes on his machine after the maimer of the Cutcheon patent, testifies:

[394]*394“I would put tlie first one on the first jack which was out from pressure. I then start the machine, and that passed the shoe under pressure. I then put the second sample shoe on the following last. I then start the machine, and that puts the second shoe under pressure. I then can revolve the machine having two shoes under pressure. When the machine comes to a stop, I take the first shoe from the jack. I start the machine again, and the other shoe comes out from pressure. Then the machine remains as I started it at first.”

In the Collyer machine, operated with two shoes, one shoe is first moved into pressure; then the second shoe is moved into pressure, the first shoe still remaining under pressure-; then both shoes are moved under pressure; then the first shoe is removed out of pressure; and finally the remaining shoe. In the Cutcheon machine, one shoe is moved from the position of removal to the position of pressure while the other shoe is being moved from the position of pressure to the position of removal; in other words, the first claim of the Cutcheon patent is for a combination of mechanism “for automatically moving one jack in one direction while the other is being moved in the opposite direction.” The two machines are different in construction and mode of operation, and therefore Collyer is not an anticipation of Cutcheon. The Collyer machine was old in the art, and presumably known to the trade.

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Related

Hammerschlag Manuf'g Co. v. Spalding
35 F. 67 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts, 1888)
Herrick v. Tripp Giant Leveller Co.
60 F. 80 (First Circuit, 1893)
Tripp Giant Leveler Co. v. Rogers
61 F. 289 (D. Massachusetts, 1894)
National Folding-Box & Paper Co. v. Elsas
65 F. 1001 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York, 1894)
Tripp Giant Leveller Co. v. Bresnahan
70 F. 982 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts, 1895)
Bresnahan v. Tripp Giant Leveller Co.
72 F. 920 (First Circuit, 1896)
Heaton-Peninsular Button-Fastener Co. v. Elliott Button-Fastener Co.
58 F. 220 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Michigan, 1893)
Office Specialty Manuf'g Co. v. Winternight & Cornyn Manuf'g Co.
67 F. 928 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Pennsylvania, 1895)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
92 F. 391, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2974, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tripp-giant-leveller-co-v-bresnahan-circtdma-1899.