W. N. Matthews Corp. v. Alliance Securities Co.

40 F.2d 879, 5 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 304, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 3274
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 5, 1930
DocketNo. 8711
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 40 F.2d 879 (W. N. Matthews Corp. v. Alliance Securities Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
W. N. Matthews Corp. v. Alliance Securities Co., 40 F.2d 879, 5 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 304, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 3274 (8th Cir. 1930).

Opinions

STONE, Circuit Judge,

o Prom a decree adjudging infringement of Hopkins patent, No. 1,196,691 (August 29, 1916), defendant brings this appeal. .

The Hopkins patent is entitled “Means for Distributing Liquids” and relates to “improvements in air-controlled means for applying liquids to surfaces.” He states that the invention “is particularly designed as an air brush for the purpose of spraying paint upon surfaces to be painted.” He sets forth the difficulties in a paint air brush as being different densities immaterial used requiring different air pressures to force the material from the container to the spray nozzle and different surfaces (to be sprayed) requiring corresponding difference in the air pressure at the nozzle to meet varying working eonditions in order to secure the best results.

He sets forth that in existing devices “the only air control had is that which passes out with the material through the distributing nozzle,” and that “the pressure used in the outer nozzle-has always been the same as that passing through the material receptacle and out of the material nozzle.” The stated defects of this existing construction is “a great deal of waste of material” and a lack of “accurate and desirable control of the spray of material.”

To meet the above difficulties, and to overcome the defects of existing devices, his device furnishes means of regulating the air pressure on the material and the air pressure direct to the nozzle entirely independent of eaeh other, thus enabling the operator to adjust eaeh of these pressures to the requirements of the particular material being used and of the surface to be painted. He contemplates the use of hut one air storage tank and gets his result by branching two air lines (one to the material tank and one direct to the nozzle) therefrom, and by placing in eaeh of said branches a valve regulating the pressure desired in the particular branch. His patent is for a combination containing many other details, but the heart of his plan is this regulation of each of these two air streams independently of each other.

Appellant contends that the prior art has anticipated every element of this combination and, also, the arrangement of elements in this combination. An additional contention of somewhat smaller range is that, if the first contention that the entire patent is anticipated is unsound, then such prior art and the file wrapper have very narrowly limited the scope of this patent.

Without close examination, it may be taken for the purposes of this case that the idea of spraying paint from a nozzle by compressed air pressure was old. Also, that many, if not all, of the separate elements were known. The question here is whether this patent plan of independent control of the two streams (paint and air) to the nozzle appears earlier, because that is the claimed novelty in this device.

The patent most strongly relied upon •as anticipatory is Collings and Weatherhead No. 412,875, issued October 15, 1889. This patent is for “Apparatus for Burning Petroleum.” Its' purpose is to afford a safe and sure way of conveying petroleum from a storage tank to a furnace burner, and of there supplying oxygen in the quantities re[880]*880quired for most perfect combustion of the oil as it issues from the burner: The operation is to have compressed air enter the burner back of the oil inlet .and thus blow the oil ■ out of the reduced outlet at the front or flame end of the burner. There is one air storage tank from which issue two pipes. One of these carries air direct to the burner, while the other goes into the oil tank and furnishes the pressure which forces oil therefrom to the burner. Intermediate each of these lines is a regulating valve which controls the pressure in each line independently of the other line. This patent is dangerously near an anticipation, if it be properly citable. The contention revolves around the point of whether the two devices are in the same -art or closely analogous arts. Undoubtedly, both are air liquid sprays. The spraying of liquids and of fine particle solids covers a very broad field of use — from a diminutive medical spray which nebulizes thin liquids to the large oil burner or the large sand sprayers used to clean hard surfaces. In a sense, the various uses of compressed air admit of grouping. In a sense, material spraying nozzles (operating by air, steam, gravity, or otherwise) are a class. Various classifications are possible into different “arts,” and each capable of more or less justification. In patent investigation, something more and additional to naturalness of classification is required. The inventor is held to know all that is present in “the art” at the time his invention enters. This presumption is conclusive and necessary. Therefore,' the importance in determining the definition of or the limits of “the art.” The theoretical but natural attitude of mind of the inventor is a good guide. It is not necessary to protect the rights of prior discoverers nor the public, nor is it fair to the inventor to require him to know more than a complete search by him would have revealed. Therefore, it is important to know what he was searching for. Hopkins was interested in a paint air brush. It is true that, after he had filed his application in the Patent Office, he sought to broaden his purpose and discovery from “an air brush for distributing liquids” to “means for distributing liquids,” but this was hardly effective, since his device is rather definitely outlined in the specifications. His problem was made by the conditions and difficulties pertaining to paint air brushes. He was trying to meet those conditions and to overcome those difficulties, and those alone. Had he searched the existing knowledge upon those matters he would have found the prior art pertaining thereto. When to this is added the rule that discovery merely of a new use of an old article is not invention, it would seem sufficient protection had beén accorded the existing art and the public. Applying this reasoning, it would seem that the Col-lings & Weatherhead patent would lie outside “the art,” because that patent was in an industry entirely unrelated to painting. Also, certain changes of construction were necessary to adapt the Collings & Weather-head patent to use as a painting air brush.

Appellant seems to recognize this danger to this citation. To avoid such, he cites Bryce No. 520,766 (June 5, 1894) for a “Spraying' Machine.” This patent is cited as an anticipation in and of itself and also to “bridge” the space between the art of the instant patent and that of Collings & Weatherhead — thus to so broaden “the art” as to include Collings & Weatherhead. As ' to the latter-eited purpose, the reasoning is that the Bryce spray may be used, according to the statements in the specifications, “as a sprayer of paint,” in various other stated uses and “to inject under air or other vapor pressure, solid and liquid fuel into a furnace.” In short, if an inventor reveals a device which he deems mainly useful as a paint spray, but which he “says” may be used for a fuel feed spray, then such statements in the specifications will enlarge “the art” for all subsequent inventors of paint or of fuel sprays. We do not follow such reasoning. Possibly an inventor may broaden “the art” as to himself by evincing actual incursions into other fields, whence he has brought back some useful suggestions, but that some one else should be permitted to broaden “the art” for all who come thereafter is not appealing to us.

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Bluebook (online)
40 F.2d 879, 5 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 304, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 3274, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/w-n-matthews-corp-v-alliance-securities-co-ca8-1930.