Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-29
NAVY PATENT CASE
DECISION REVERSED
$198, 900 Judgment Had Fa.
vored FiSke on Torpedo
Dropping Device.

The District Court Of Appeals today
reversed the decision Of the District
Supreme Court which awarded to Rear
Admiral Bradley A. Fiske U. S. NJ, re-
tired, a judgment for $4,000 against
Rear Admiral William A. Mof1ett, chief
of the Bureau of Naval Aeronautics.
The Judgment had been awarded by
the lower court for alleged infringement
of a patent held by Fiske on a torpedo
dropping device which had been used
on 1877 planes by the United States
without authority of the patentee.
In an opinion by Justice William
Hitz, the Court of Appeals held Fiske's
patent was invalid for inoperativeness,
and that the United States was en-
titled to an irrevocable license to use
inventions made while Fiske was an
ofncer of the United States Navy.
Point Of Disagreement.
1--WE cannot agree with the trial
court" Justice Hitz said, that when a
member of the General Board of the
Navy and head Of the Committee on
War Plans spends his time and inge-
nuity in devising a method and sppa-
ratus for discharging torpedoes from
airplanes as part Of scheme of
naval defense. he is entitled to with
hold the device from the Government.
Nor does the fact, II it be a fact, that
some details we're not perfected to his
satisfaction until shortly after he was
transferred to command of q fleet,
alter the situation
On the question Of inoperativeness,
the court pointed out Admiral FiSke
testified that when he applied for this
patent he had never seen seaplane
and but two airplanes in exhibition
fight. which were flimsy affairs and
purely experimental.
The record showed, according to the
court, that at the date Of the patent
no airplane was in existence capable
of carrying the torpedo required; that
no torpedo was known able to sustain
the shock of dropping from an airplane
at the minimum speed OF flight; that
improved torpedoeS were required for
such use; that years of work and ex-
Fermentation subsequent to the patent
were required to produce such torpedoes
and to make the conception Of launch
ing torpedoes from airplanes practical;
while all labor, material and money re-
quired for such experimentation had
been furnished by the United States.
Nothing Contributed.
yet at a time" Justice Hitz said,
when airplanes were hardly capable of
rising from the ground, Admiral Fiske
presumes a plane capable of carrying
and discharging q torpedo Weighing a
ton. To the development Of such a
plane Admiral Fiske contributed Moth
ing, yet by this Judgment he is given
damages against q brother officer based
upon the total cost of 397 such planes,
alleged to have been used with torpedo
dropping devices infringing his patent"
Justice Hitz also pointed out that
Admiral Fiske testified that his inven-
ton was a pure dream embodied in
the descriptions and drawings" and that
he was amazed at the facility with
which a patent was obtained for a
thing so obvious.
I'VE think his amazement," Justice
Hitz added, was justified; but a dream,
like an idea, Is not an invention and
cannot be patented until embodied in
physical continuance making it prac-
tically useful and the useful continuance
cannot be patented, even If new, unless
its novelty amounts to discovery. Until
the inventor has done this as a matter
of reasonable legal certainty, and not
as matter of mere conjecture or
prophetical possibility, he has given
nothing to the public In return for the
monopoly which he seeks by letters
patent"
Admiral Moffett was represented by
Attorneys Henry C. Workman and
Charles B. Rugg, while Attorneys Ernest
Wilkinson and r. J. Mawhinney ap-
peared for Admiral Fiske.