Wirfs v. D. W. Bosley Co.

20 F.2d 632, 1927 U.S. App. LEXIS 2607
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJune 8, 1927
DocketNo. 7629
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 20 F.2d 632 (Wirfs v. D. W. Bosley 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
Wirfs v. D. W. Bosley Co., 20 F.2d 632, 1927 U.S. App. LEXIS 2607 (8th Cir. 1927).

Opinion

WALTER H. SANBORN, Circuit Judge.

Edward J. Wirfs, the appellant in this ease, brought a suit in equity against D. W. Bosley Company, a corporation, and Rodgers Hayne and Arthur Surridge, partners as Hayne-Surridge Company. The defendant Surridge was and is the agent of the Bosley Company, and the copartnership is its authorized distributor of its products, so that their rights and liabilities depend on those of that company, and they will not be farther noticed.

For more than 20 years prior to the commencement of this suit the Bosley Company> and since 1921 Mr. Wirfs, as competitors, 'have been manufacturing at St. Louis and selling throughout the nation weather strips and gaskets to make as near airtight as possible the doors of refrigerators and the doors and windows of other structures. Wirfs obtained two patents on certain improvements in gaskets, the first on his application filed November 28, 1921, issued January 22, 1924, No. 1,481,451,' and the second on his application filed January 8,1923, issued November 18, 1924, No. 1,516,130.

On February 10, 1925, Mr. Wirfs exhibited his bill in equity in the court below against the Bosley Company, first, for its infringement of each of his patents; second, for its infringement of certain copyrights he had secured; and, third, for unfair competition. The Bosley Company answered, denying the charges. Evidence was introduced, a final hearing was had, and the court below decided, first, that the Bosley Company had infringed the patents of Wirfs, that he should recover from it his damages and the profits the Bosley Company had derived from the use of his inventions, appointed a master to ascertain and report the amount of these profits, and enjoined the Bosley Company from farther infringement; second, “that, as to copyright infringement, the finding be against plaintiff, and the relief prayed for with respe'ct thereto be denied”; and, third, “that defendants have not been guilty of unfair competition against plaintiff and that relief with respect thereto be denied.” Thereupon the Bosley Company appealed from the decree and assigned as error that portion thereof which adjudged the validity of the patents and their infringe-; ment. That appeal is No. 7630 in this court (20 F.f2d] 629), and is deferred because leave has been granted to the Bosley Company to make a motion in the court below for permission to open the ease and present newly discovered evidence of prior use of the patented devices. Mr. Wirfs also appealed from the decree, and assigned the court’s denial of any relief to him on account of infringement of his copyrights and unfair competition by Bosley Company as error.

Upon the issue of infringement of the copyrights alleged Mr. Wirfs introduced in [633]*633evidence several copyrighted advertising circulars containing cuts portraying doors and windows with his weather strips or gaskets applied thereto, and describing his method of application of them and advertising circulars of Hayne-Surridge Company, which he claimed infringed his copyrights. An examination of all the evidence upon this issue has convinced us that the strongest evidence of infringement of any of the copyrights presented by Mr. Wirfs is that disclosed by the cut called “Door Stop” in his copyrighted circnlar, Exhibit G, and the cut also called “Door Stop” in the Hayne-Surridge advertising circular, Exhibit II. Counsel for Mr. Wirfs are evidently of the same opinion, for in their brief they write: “The copyright infringement alleged in paragraphs 9 to 17 of the bill of complaint consists of the copying of a certain cut used in plaintiff’s copyrighted circulars, Exhibits C, D, E, E, and G, and more particularly the cut marked “Eig. 1,” on Exhibit G, by the publication of defendants’ circular, Exhibit H. The defense is that plaintiff permitted the publication of an anticipating cut in the National Builder. The issue is whether or not defendants have copied plainti ff’s copyrighted cut, or the free cut in the National Builder, or neither.”

Here are copies of the three cuts taken from the record:

End View.

[[Image here]]

No. 1 is the anticipating cut from the National Builder.

No. 2 is Wirfs’ copyrighted cut.

No. 3 is the alleged infringing cut from defendants’ circular, Exhibit 11.

These'euts portray simple, common, familiar objects, necessarily and unavoidably similar to each other. But this similarity is far from sufficient under the evidence in this ease to sustain this suit for infringement of a copyright. The burden was on Mr. Wirfs to prove that the cut in defendants’ circular was not originally conceived, devised, or made by the Bosley Company or its officer or agent, but that it was copied directly or indirectly, from Ms copyrighted cut. He proved the exact contrary. He called Mr. Bosley as Ms witness, and, after he had been sworn to testify to the truth, on Ms direct examination by Mr. Wirfs’ counsel he testified as follows:

“Q. * * * Where did you get the il- ■ lustration on Exhibit III A. Where did I get it?

“Q. Yes. A. The artist made it.

“Q. The artist made it. Erom what did he make it? A. I showed Mm how to put the strip on the corner of the door and told Mm to draw it.

“Q. Wasn’t it drawn from one of Wirfs’ ? A. No, sir.

“Q. Pictures? A. No, sir; it is common application.”

A complainant who calls a defendant as a witness is bound by his testimony, unless he can by witnesses or other competent evidence show that his testimony is false. Coonrod v. Kelly (C. C. A.) 119 F. 841, 846; Standard Water Systems Co. v. Griscom-Russel Co. (C. C. A.) 278 F. 703, 705. This testimony of Mr. Bosley, the prior publication of the similar cut in the National Builder in 1922, and the presumption that it was then in the public domain leave no doubt in our minds that there was no substantial mistake of fact or error of lav; in the conclusion of the court below that Mr. Wirfs is entitled to no relief in equity on account of the alleged infringement of Ms copyrights, and the decree below upon that subject must be and it is affirmed.

We turn to the claim of counsel for Mr. Wirfs that the proof of unfair competition [634]*634by the Bosley Company was so convincing that the refusal of the court below to grant him relief from lit was inequitable. “If a plaintiff has the absolute right to the use of a particular word or words as a trade-mark, then, if an infringement is shown, the wrongful or fraudulent intent is presumed, and, although allowed to be rebutted in exemption of damages, the further violation of the right of property will nevertheless be restrained.” Elgin Nat. Watch Co. v. Illinois Watch Co., 179 U. S. 665, 674, 21 S. Ct. 270, 274 (45 L. Ed. 365). This rule is equally applicable to the infringement of patents, and the court below gave Mr. Wirfs the benefit of it in its decree for the defendants’ infringement of his patents. But Mr. Wirfs has no such trademark and no such presumption of Bosley Company’s fraudulent intention in this ease for unfair competition.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
20 F.2d 632, 1927 U.S. App. LEXIS 2607, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wirfs-v-d-w-bosley-co-ca8-1927.