Winchester Repeating Arms Co. v. American Buckle & Cartridge Co.

62 F. 278, 1894 U.S. App. LEXIS 2863
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut·Decided June 28, 1894·No. Nos. 676-678·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

SHIPMAN, Circuit Judge.

The questions solely arise upon the exceptions of the complainant and the defendant to the master’s report. The substantial facts which relate' to the infringement are given in the opinion upon final hearing (54 Fed. 704), except that the defendant’s contract with the Peters Cartridge Company for the sale of its patents and the manufacture of two complete sets of machinery and tools for making paper cartridge shells, for $21,000, was a single one, but was evidenced in two separate written agreements, by which the Peters Company agreed to pay $10,000 for the patents and $11,000 for the machinery. In return for this $11,000 the defendant agreed "to build,” deliver, and place the machinery in the proper position, ready for working, at the factory of the Peters Company in Ohio, and to deliver to it all the patterns and working drawings of the machinery for making paper shells which the defendant owned. ' The machinery comprised, in addition to the two sets of wad winders, assembling machines, and primers which infringed the Salisbury patents, 15 auxiliary, un-patented machines, and the necessary tools. The master found that the automatic machines were the desiderata which sold all [279] tlic auxiliary machines; that they were made to use with the two automatic patented systems covered by the complainant's patents, and were practically worihless without them; and that, if the Peters Company could not have had these patented devices, they would not have purchased the auxiliary machines. The master further found that the complainant was entitled to recover the net profits made upon the manufacture of Ihe entire machinery. No exceptions were; taken to (he foregoing findings. The complainant did not contend that it. could recover the profits made ujion the sale of ihe patents as well as the profits upon the infringing machinery, but it contended that the agreement to pay «1.1,000 was simply for the building or the manufacture and the erection in place of the machinery, and that §10,000 was paid for the right to use the infringing machinery, and, therefore, that it was entitled to the profits upon ihe entire §21,000. The master reported that the contract was a single one, that §i>,350, the cost of ihe patents, should be deducted from this nominal price of $10,000, and allowed §3,050, in addition to the profits, above the cost of ihe machinery. The complainant’s first exception related to the deduction of §0,350, and the defendant excepted in its sixth exception to the recovery of §3,050 in addition to the profits upon the construction of the machinery.

The history of the transaction was, in my opinion, as follows: The defendant, in April. 1889, when it was manufacturing paper-shell cartridge's, solicited an order, or an arrangement of some kind, for the purchase of shells, from the Peters Company. In May, 1889, it was sued by the complainant for the infringement of the wad-winding patent, and in the same month it sold to the complainant all its machinery, tools, partially made shells, and stock of paper*, and went, out of flu* business of manufacturing cartridges. It owned eight patents, six of which were issued to Amos Dicker-man. One had been issued to, and one had been allowed but not issued to, William 1». Place. Its patented machines were made under the supervision of Mr. Place, and it knew that the complainant claimed that the Place machines infringed one of its patents. As the defendant was going out of the cartridge business, and as ihe complainant had refused to buy its patents in the purchase of May, 1889, the defendant• desired to find some other purchaser, and accordingly made overtures by letter of June 14, 1889, to the Peters Company to buy them, and also probably offered to manufacture for them an entire set of machinery. This letter was not in evidence, but knowledge of its contents is derived by inference from the reply of the Peters Company. That company was a. competitor of the complainant, but did not own economical and successful automatic machinery. Jfc kindly received and promptly embraced the opportunity to purchase patents for this class of mechanism, and as it was not a manufacturer of machinery, and as the defendant owned patterns and working drawings, and promised to make sets of machinery therefrom, it promptly accepted, on June 28th, the propositions for patents and sets of machinery. The purchase of the patents by the Peters Company was not simply [280] to get the right to use two sets of patented machinery. It wanted the entire patented right to make and use, for the unexpired term of the patents, any required quantity of machinery, and it was willing to pay $10,000 to gain this result. Presumptively, a contract by the owner of a patent to build patented machines, and place them in running order, ready for use in a factory, includes also the right to use the machines. The testimony does not show that this was not the actual contract, and no definite part of the $10,000 can be added to the profit upon the building part of the contract, upon the theory that the entire price of the machinery and of the right to use it was more than $11,000, or that a part of the supposed or theoretical price of the patents was or should be added to the $11,000 in order to ascertain the defendant’s true profit upon the infringement. The defendant probably received a very high price for its patents, but this was due to the high anticipations which the Peters Company had of their value.

The master found that the actual cost of the whole machinery was $7,334.43, to which he added, for general expenses and superintendence, 26 1-5 per cent., being $1,921.62, making the total cost $9,256.05, and the profit $1,743.95. The complainant excepts to the allo wance of $1,921.62. 0

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Winchester Repeating Arms Co. v. American Buckle & Cartridge Co., 62 F. 278, 1894 U.S. App. LEXIS 2863 (circtdct 1894).

62 F. 278 (Winchester Repeating Arms Co. v. American Buckle & Cartridge Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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