The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-12-19
'BERLINER'S PATENTS
A DECISION AGAINST THE TELE-
PHONE COMPANY.
The Complainant Made Out No Case
The Case VIII Be Carried to the
Federal Court of Appeals, and to
the Supreme Court If Necessary.

Boston, Dec. 1S-The long-contested
patent suit Of the United States VS..
the American Bell Telephone company
was ended this morning when Judge
Carpenter, of the United States circuit
court rendered a decision against the
telephone company. This suit was a
bill in equity praying for the repeal OF
letters patent issued to Emile Berltner,
assignor of the American Bell Tele-
phone company, for a combined teIe-
phone and telegraph system.
The Berliner patents were issued TO
the telephone company but never put
into use by them on account. they say,
of the expense of making changes in
the telephone system, while other COM
panies were prevented from using the
system.
The first ground of the bill brought
by the claimant IN this suit is that the
patent is void, it being beyond the
power of the commissioner to issue.
On this point the decision of Judge
Carpenter declares:
Judge Carpenters Decision.
cit appears that one of the functions
of the device shown in the patent Of
1880, namely, the function of trans
hitting articulate speech, is identical
device covered by the patent of 1891.
and that the device for effecting the
transmission of sound is identical in
both patents. The patent, therefore,
seems to me to be void and beyond the
power of the commissioner to issue
1.-The second ground in the SUIT Is that
the issue of the patent was u1lawfully
delayed through the fault of respondent.
The respondent corporation was Of ample
means to pres ecute the application. The
result of any delay which might take
place in the issue of BeAiner'S patent
would evidently be to continue SO much
longer the practical monopoly of the art
of electrical transmission of articulate
1t clear that the duty of the respondent
company was to use the greatest degree
of diligence If prosecuting the application
on TO an early issue.
1.-THE ar plication for which an inter
ference was anticipated was that filed
July %, 1890, by Daniel Drawbaugh under
which he claims to be the original and
first inventor of the telephone.
at would never appear in the patent
Office that Drawbaugh was entitled to
a patent. The plain duty of the re-
spondenr corporation was, as it seems to
me, to insist on its right to patent at
once. That the unwarrantable delay thus
caused was intended by the respondent,
i can have no doubt.
Il think these acts were so gross as to
forbid any interference except that the
dishonesty delayed issue of the patent,
taking advantage for that purpose of the
perhaps excusable willingness of the Off
Gals of the patent office to postpone the
decision of a sharply debated question in
volved.
MY conclusion, therefore, is that the
| complainant has made out no case, and
that there should be a decree that the
patent in question was void and Shall be
delivered up and cancelled
( The Case to Go Up.
| Lawyer L. P. Fish, of the Bell com
pany, speaking of the decision, said:
1.-THE case will now go to the United
States Court of Appeals, and a decdst on
will possibly be rendered next spring
after the case has been argued anew
as though the Circuit Court had not
made this decision. If the case is de-
cided against US, it will be taken to the
United States Supreme Court"
The value of the patent involved is said
to be $5000,000. The governments case
against the Bell company contained two
counts, and the judge sustained the gov
eminent in both. The first count WIS in
effect that the issuance of the patent to
Berliner was unnecessarily delayed, and
the second count was in substance that
a former patent to Berllner covered sub
stantialiy the same claims as made n
the pa tent issued in 1891.
In the stock exchange the effect OF
the decision was to send off Bell Tele-
phone stock with a rush, and for D.
few minutes there was great excite
ment. The stock opened unchanged at
2OO1h, and when the news of the deci-
sion reached the street it slumped by
degrees to 1S1. From this point it re-
covered to 100 and at l O'Clock was ad