Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/284/52/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 10:53:05+00:00

Document:
1. A patent which fails to describe in the specification, and to point out particularly and distinctly claim, an invention or discovery, is void. R.S. § 4888. P. 284 U. S. 57.
2. While drawings may be referred to for illustration and may be used as an aid in interpreting the specification or claim, they are of no avail where there is an entire absence of description of the alleged invention or a failure to claim it. P. 284 U. S. 60.
3. Patent No. 1,195,923 (Claims 1 and 5) to Gans, for an apparatus for softening water, is void, for want of disclosure and want of invention. Pp. 284 U. S. 57-60.
washed away. To prevent this, in the earlier filter, a metal screen was placed close above the bed of zeolite. The patentee was alleged to have discovered that this "locking" of the zeolites interfered with their efficient action, and that it was necessary to have an open space above them in which they might rise, or "boil," and spread out and reform in the bed, and the alleged invention chiefly relied upon in the litigation lay in removal of the close-fitting cover and in placing the screen some distance above the layer; but this was not mentioned in the specification or in either of the claims. A further contention, under Claim 5, that there was invention in placing the means for removing the salt solution at the lowest point of the casing is also rejected. "It does not require the exercise of the inventive faculty to place at the bottom of a receptacle the outlet through which it is to be drained."
Certiorari, 283 U.S. 812, to review a decree affirming a decree of the District Court, 37 F.2d 385, dismissing a suit to enjoin alleged infringement of a patent.
Water is hard because it contains the salts of calcium and magnesium. It may be softened by distillation or by adding to the water certain other chemicals through which the hardening constituents in solution are changed to an insoluble form and precipitated. Such softening may also be effected by the use of zeolite, a hydrated alumino-silicate found in nature. When hard water is passed through zeolites, they give up their sodium to the water, and take from it the calcium and magnesium as a new base. Zeolites have the peculiar quality that, after becoming exhausted in such use, they may be regenerated by passing a solution of common salt through them, whereupon they give up their new base of calcium and magnesium and take back their sodium base. They retain indefinitely these valuable properties.
"in which the zeolites or alumino-silicates can be used in a filter and be regenerated therein so as to be capable of continuous use for the softening of water."
The essential elements of the water softening process in which this apparatus is employed are the passage of water through zeolites, their regeneration by recharging them with the sodium chloride solution, and the rinsing of them thereafter, so that no noticeable tinge of salt will be found in the filtered water. A drawing was attached to the specification as an example of a filter provided according to the invention claimed.
As described in the specification, the apparatus consists of a cylindrical container within which are "a number of horizontally disposed perforated plates." Near the bottom is one upon which rests a layer of sand (or quartz). This supports a bed of zeolites. At some distance above the zeolites is another perforated bed of sand "through which the water to be softened may be first filtered." There are piping connections so that the hard water may be run into the casing through the zeolite bed and out to the soft water service line. The chamber is also provided with means for cutting off the hard water and introducing a flow of salt water to regenerate the zeolites, and with means for washing out of the container the contaminated brine and any accumulated dirt. As so constructed, the filter may operate by letting the hard water flow either downward through the upper sand bed to the zeolites or upward to them through the lower sand bed. On March 2, 1920, The Permutit Company disclaimed from the scope of Claim 1 any apparatus "in which the water to be softened is so introduced into the casing that it passes upwardly through said layer of zeolites." It is conceded that Graver Corporation's 1927 type of water softener does not infringe Claim 1, as, in it, the water passes upward.
The specification also describes, and the drawing indicates, a modified form of apparatus provided with means for stirring the zeolites in washing. No stirrer is employed in the defendants' apparatus.
rising space by placing the screen at some distance above the top of the layer of zeolites.
5 for "a filter bed consisting of a layer of zeolites or alumino-silicates, supporting means for said layer." [Footnote 5] As the patentee has thus failed to give in the specification "a written description," and has likewise failed particularly to point out and distinctly Claim the free zeolite bed as "the part, improvement, or combination which he Claims as his invention or discovery," the patent is void.
"if the specifications and drawings of a patent show a structure clearly involving a certain theory of operation, it is not necessary that the patentee should expressly describe this theory, nor indeed that he should at that time clearly understand it."
Development Co., 283 U. S. 420, 283 U. S. 421; Concrete Appliances Co. v. Gomery, 269 U. S. 177, 269 U. S. 185.
The patent was first sustained by the District Court for Western New York. Permutit Co. v. Harvey Laundry Co., 274 F. 937, affirmed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, 279 F. 713; certiorari denied, 259 U.S. 588. It was then sustained by the District Court for Southern New York. Permutit Co. v. Paige & Jones Chemical Co., 292 F. 239; aff'd, 22 F.2d 916. It was also sustained by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, Permutit Co. v. Wadham, 13 F.2d 454, 458, 15 F.2d 20; reversing the decision in 294 F. 370, which had held the patent invalid.
It was contended by defendant that the "free bed" had been fully described in prior printed publications more than two years before the time Gans filed his application for the patent sued on. Moreover, in this case (unlike the earlier ones), the defendant introduced much evidence of successful operation of "locked" beds.
Sewall v. Jones, 91 U. S. 171, 91 U. S. 184-185; Yale Lock Mfg. Co. v. Greenleaf, 117 U. S. 554, 117 U. S. 559; Stewart v. American Lava Co., 215 U. S. 161, 215 U. S. 165-167; Beidler v. United States, 253 U. S. 447, 253 U. S. 452-453; Fulton Co. v. Powers Regulator Co., 263 F. 578, 580; Typewriter Hilliardized, Inc. v. Corona Typewritter Co., 43 F.2d 961, 964.
"Claim 1. A water softening apparatus comprising a casing, a filter bed consisting of a layer of sand or quartz and a layer of zeolites or hydrated alumino-silicates disposed on the layer of sand or quartz, means for permitting the passage of water through the casing, means for cutting off the supply of water on the exhaustion of the zeolites, and means for passing through the casing a solution of salt capable of regenerating the zeolites."
"Claim 5. Water softening apparatus comprising a casing, a filter bed consisting of a layer of zeolites or alumino-silicates, supporting means for said layer, means for permitting the passage of water through the casing, means for cutting off the supply of water on the exhaustion of the zeolites, means for supplying and passing into the casing a solution of a salt capable of regenerating zeolites and means connected to the lowest point of the casing for removing the salt solution so introduced."
In 22 F.2d 916, 918, the court, in rejecting a defense of anticipation by a German Gebrauchmuster, stated that the earlier patentee did not have in mind backwashing to which Gans referred in his specification. This was not said, however, in reference to the question of the adequacy of Gans' disclosure.
"The specification and drawing provide for the occasional descent into the zeolite bed from above of a revolving stirrer, and this makes it clear that the top of the zeolite must be free and unconfined, under the contemplation of these Claims, like 1 and 5, which do not imply the nonuse of the stirrer."
13 F.2d 454, 458. On the contrary, the drawing shows that a vertical movement of the stirrer was not contemplated, and that the arrangement of shaft and gear would prevent it. Moreover, the stirrer was not an element in the combination claimed. It was not even an element in the filter shown in the drawing and referred to in the specification "by way of example." The specification states: "Fig. 2 is a similar but fragmental view of a modification carrying a stirring device; Fig. 3 is a horizontal section of the same." Nor would the presence of the stirrer, in any event, be inconsistent with a confined bed. See 37 F.2d 385, 392.
Such unoccupied space is exhibited in the drawings annexed to Jewel Patent No. 478,261; Bommarius No. 519,565; Driesbach No. 630,870; Bommarius No. 632,091, and Bachman No. 678,532, all relating to ordinary filters, and all introduced in evidence below.
McCarty v. Lehigh Valley R. Co., 160 U. S. 110, 160 U. S. 116; Tinker v. Wilber Eureka Mower & Reaper Mfg. Co., 1 F. 138, 139; Gunn v. Savage, 30 F. 366, 369; Windle v. Parks & Woolson Machine Co., 134 F. 381, 384-385.
Merrill v. Yeomans, 94 U. S. 568, 94 U. S. 573; Seymour v. Osborne, 11 Wall. 516, 78 U. S. 541.
Compare Keystone Bridge Co. v. Phoenix Iron Co., 95 U. S. 274, 95 U. S. 278; Alexander Milburn Co. v. Davis-Bournonville Co., 270 U. S. 390, 270 U. S. 401.

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