The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-08-30
Summary of Courts Decision in Contest
Minerals Separation VS.. Butte & Superior

claim of infringement of flotation pat
ent, the court observes:
IF the patent is limited to the use
of a fraction of l per cent of oil,
that the process can be operated with
/ per cent and more, is not material to
validity, though it may be to infringe
ment. For if patentee limits his
claim voluntarily or because he does
not know the extent of his invention,
he abandons through excess and the
patent is valid to the extent of the
claim.
To Avoid Patent.
Defendant practically admits that
it now uses the present amount of oil
merely to avoid the patent. 1t is
done, says it's counsel in argument,
because the supreme court has said it
is not at liberty to use less than one
half per cent and out of abundance of
caution it uses more than l per cent
Defendant uses the patent pro-
cess, uses the plaintiffs invention Of
ore concentration by air bubble con-
centration, uses the same elements in
the same combination in the same
way with the same functions to the
same but poorer results and exceed
ing the patent claims in reference to
one Observation-Disclosures waste
fully and injuriously and merely with
intent to avoid the letter of the pat
ent, but does not avoid infringement.
To secure to patentees their invention,
the law looks quite through mere de-
vices and forms in the substance of
things, and if in substance the inven-
ton Is taken, if the thing that does
the work is taken, all devices to evade
the letter of the patent avail nothing
to escape the consequences of infringe
ment"
On Its Validity.
Regarding the validity of the pat
ent, the court proceeds:
Ambiguity and obscurity were so
much due to the extreme simplicity of
the processes as to the inability then
and now to know and explain all its
laws and principles. The tendency
was to attach prime importance to re-
duction in amount of oil used, when
in fact this is but a necessary incl
dent (for which there are substitutes
If not equivalents) to the creation of
the infinitude of bubbles that do the
work. Despite this tendency. and to
overlook the simple and obvious, the
patent fairly clearly sets out the var
ious ways and means to create this
infinitude of bubbles and that they do
the work.
But defendant contends that this
evidence demonstrates the process
lacks novelty and invention and that
because of it the record is substan-
TALLY different from the Hyde suit and
the decision there should not control
here, and the patent is now and ought
to be held invalid. This Is without
support in the patent and Hyde de-
cision."
Further concerning the invention
in the process, the court holds as fol-
lows
although somewhat ambiguous
and obscure, present knowledge war
rants the conclusion that the gist of
this remarkable and valuable process,
and the actual discovery and inven-
ton, are that whereas heretofore in
ore concentration air had been used in
desulory and fugitive bubbles as a
makeshift incidental and supplement
to oil and skin flotation. air can be
made to do all this work by creating
in water-ore pulp modified by suit
able oily contaminant an infinitude of
bubbles. 1t is the first of its kind
and the patent sufficiently discloses 1t
and methods to those skilled in the
art"