United States v. Paramount Publix Corp.

22 C.C.P.A. 452, 1934 CCPA LEXIS 207
Court of Customs and Patent Appeals·Decided December 24, 1934·No. No. 3809·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

Bland, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The merchandise involved in this appeal is a machine weighing about four or five hundred pounds which reproduces motion pictures by printing on a blank film the picture which is on a developed film. The machine was not shown to the trial court or to this court. Two photographs, representing front and back views of this machine were received in evidence as Illustrative Exhibits A. and B, which exhibits are printed in the record in connection with the opinion of the trial court. Exhibit B is reproduced herewith. The machine is described by the witness who testified for the importer, and its uses and characteristics, as shown by the testimony of said witness, are so well set out by the trial court that we can do no better than to quote from its opinion as follows:

The witness’s testimony as to the machinery depicted in illustrative exhibits A and B is as follows:
Q. Now, will you describe the component parts of the -machinery imported as illustrated by illustrative exhibits A and B?— A. That is composed of a projection machine and a camera. * * * The camera is located practically under the reel shown on the bracket.
[454] Q. Is the reel now marked “1”, Doctor? — A. Yes, sir.
Q. What portion of the picture represents the camera? — A. Directly in the center over the pedestal.
Q. Would you put a numeral “2” at one extremity and the numeral “3” at the other extremity? (The witness marked “2” and “3” as directed.)
* # % Hi * * *
Q. Of what does the camera consist? — A. The camera consists of a light-type ¡box with a lens at one end and a means for holding and advancing the film at the other end.
Q. Is that camera as contained in this imported merchandise a complete tnachine in itself or a complete camera in itself? — A. Yes, sir; it is a complete unit.
Q. What other component parts are there in the imported merchandise? — A. There is a projector.
Q. Will you mark that with the letters “4” and “5”, please? (The witness marked “4” and “5” as directed.)
Q. What are the parts contained in the projector? — A. The projector contains a light-type housing and the lens in one end and a film-advancing unit at the other end.
Q. Is that a complete projector in itself? — -A. Yes, sir.
Q. What other parts are contained in this machine besides those you have already described? — A. There is an illuminating source used in connection with the projector.
Q. Would you mark that “6”? — A. Yes. (The witness marked “6” as directed.)
Q. What other parts? — A. And a means for controlling the light on the projector.
Q. What do you mean by “controlling the light”? — A. Varying its intensity.
Q. Would you mark that “7”? (The witness marks “7” as instructed.)
Q. What other parts are there? — A. And an electric motor for driving the entire mechanism. * ' * * That is located within the base.
Q. Is it apparent in the picture? — A. The pulley and belt are in sight. * * * (The witness marks this part of the apparatus with the number “8”.)
Q. Are there any other parts * * *? — A. Those are the essential parts. * * * There is a blower that is used to cool the lamp house down. * * * There is a rotating prism, which is associated with the film-advancing means within the projector; and there is a mirror that receives the image from the projector, and which is photographed by the camera.
As to the use of this merchandise the witness testified: “It makes a copy of one film on another film of the same size.” The method of accomplishing this result is as follows:
A developed, finished film is threaded into the projecting end of the machine, and by means of the light in the lamp house it is projected through the lens onto a mirror, and this image is received by a lens in the camera and recorded on an un exposed film that has been previously threaded into the camera.
It was further testified that the image placed on the unexposed film in the camera is an exact duplicate of the image which is run through the projector on the developed film, and the process employed in still photography when an enlargement of a photograph is made by means of an enlarging camera is “essentially the same as the one performed by this machine”; that the term “printing” as commonly used by people engaged in photography, covered “the process performed by the imported machinery”; and that the merchandise in question cannot be used for any other purpose than the printing of films.
The witness further testified that this merchandise as imported contained a source of light, a device for varying the intensity of that light, and an electric motor, which is consolidated in the base of the machine; but those devices are not either collectively or individually essential features of the machine, which “will work just the same without those refinements”; that the results obtained would be the same without them, but “you would simply lack speed”; that they are only used for speed.

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United States v. Paramount Publix Corp., 22 C.C.P.A. 452, 1934 CCPA LEXIS 207 (ccpa 1934).

22 C.C.P.A. 452 (United States v. Paramount Publix Corp.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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