Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/220/428/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 01:51:58+00:00

Document:
Where a device possesses such amount of change from the prior art as to receive approval of the Patent Office, it is entitled to the presumption of invention which attaches to a patent.
An inventor is entitled to all that his patent fairly covers, even though its complete capacity is not recited in the specifications and was unknown to the inventor prior to the patent's issuing.
The law regards a change as a novelty, and the acceptance and utility of the change as further evidence, even as a demonstration, of novelty.
The rubber carriage tire involved in this case and patented to Grant attained a degree of utility not reached by any prior patent, and, although only a step beyond the prior art, is entitled to be patented as an invention.
Utility of a device may be attested by litigation over it showing and measuring the existence of public demand for its use.
While extensive use of an article beyond that of its rivals may be induced by advertising, where the use becomes practically exclusive, a presumption of law will attribute that result to its essential excellence and its superiority over other forms in use.
Elements of a combination may all be old, for in making a combination, the inventor has the whole field of mechanics to draw from. Leeds & Catlin Co. v. Victor Talking Machine Co., 213 U.S. p. 213 U. S. 318.
On the evidence, this Court finds that the improvement on rubber tires involved in this case possesses the power ascribed to it by the inventor and denied by those using it without authority, and holds that this power was not the result of chance, but was achieved by careful study of scientific and mechanical problems necessary to overcome defects in all other existing articles of that class.
In the courts below, defendants relied on invalidity of complainant's patent, and did not press the defense of noninfringement, and also conceded that infringement existed in prior litigation, and this Court holds that infringement exists.
Quaere whether, under Kessler v. Eldred, 206 U. S. 285, the injunction can extend to sale of articles in other circuits in which complainant's patent has been held invalid.
157 F. 677 and 162 F. 892, affirming 147 F. 739, affirmed.
The facts, which involve the validity of certain letters patent for improvement in rubber tires, are stated in the opinion.
Writ of certiorari to review a decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals of the Second Circuit, sustaining a patent for an improvement in rubber tires issued to Arthur W. Grant February 18, 1896. The patent, and those which it is contended anticipate it, have received full exposition in the opinion of that court. 157 F. 677, and 162 F. 892, aff'g 147 F. 739. It and they were also passed upon and the patent sustained in Rubber Tire Wheel Co. v. Columbia Pneumatic Wagon Wheel Co., 91 F. 978, and in Consolidated Rubber Tire Co. v. Finley Rubber Tire Co., 116 F. 629; Consolidated Rubber Tire Co. v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 151 F. 237. See also Rubber Tire Wheel Co. v. Milwaukee Rubber Works Co., 142 F. 531, 533, and the same case, 154, F. 358, 362. It was held invalid in Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Rubber Tire Wheel Co., 116 F. 363, reversing the circuit court, Judge Wing presiding. It was also declared invalid in Rubber-Tire Wheel Co. v. Victor Rubber-Tire Co., 123 F. 85, following 116 F. 363, supra.
A further display of the patent and of its alleged anticipating devices would seem to be unnecessary, and that we might immediately take up a review of the divergent decisions. There is controversy as to whether they are divergent and irreconcilable in fundamental conceptions of the patent as well as in result.
We may say at the outset of this asserted conflict between the cases that the Court of Appeals of the Second Circuit considered that there was no antagonism between its decision and that of the Court of Appeals of the Sixth Circuit. It proceeded, as it in effect said, upon "new facts and features which have been added to or developed from the records in the earlier cases." However, something more is required of us than the reconciliation of other cases -- some consideration of the patent and the state of the art prior to it.
"certain new and useful improvements in rubber tire wheels . . . designed for use on ordinary vehicles, such as wagons, buggies, and carriages, . . . and consist in the construction of parts hereinafter described and set forth in the claim."
"1. A vehicle wheel having a metallic rim with angularly propelling flanges to form a channel or groove with tapered or inclined sides, a rubber tire, the inner portion of which is adapted to fit in said groove or channel, and the outer portion having sides at an angle to the inner portion, the angle or corner between the outer and inner portions being located within the outer periphery of the flanges, and independent retaining wires passing entirely through the inner portions of said tire and also within the outer peripheries of the flanges, substantially as described."
wheel, so as to form a channel or groove having tapered or inclined sides, a rubber tire, the inner portion of which is adapted to fit in said tapered groove or channel, and the outer or exposed portions formed at an angle thereto, the angle or corner between the said portions being placed within the outer periphery of said flanges, openings extending entirely through the unexposed portion of said tire, and independent retaining wires in said openings, and a reinforcing strip of fibrous material placed at the bottom of said tire and wholly within said flanges, substantially as specified."
"In the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a wheel embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation of the wheel rim, shown partly in perspective. Fig. 3 is a partial longitudinal section through the tire, showing the openings for the retaining wires.
Fig. 4 is a transversal view of the rubber tire in detail."
It is conceded that the claims are narrow, counsel saying that they are "limited closely to the specific construction of the Grant tire as it is actually shown and described in the patent." And a right to equivalents is disclaimed. Indeed, a certain merit is made of this as exhibiting at once the simplicity and perfection of the invention and the tribute paid to its excellence by respondent by exactly imitating it, instead of attempting to evade it. It is pointed out that the coaction of the parts is so dependent upon their shape and relation that any alteration destroys their cooperation and the utility of the tire. There is strength in the contention, as we shall presently see.
"that the Grant tire is not cemented into the channel. This is an essential and important point. Any tire that is cemented in its channel is rigid, and cannot 'creep' or yield to lateral blows. It is therefore easily and quickly destroyed. The absence of cement in the Grant tire is a vital characteristic."
"by omitting the cement, and by permitting the tire to tip, to creep, and to move in its channel obtained a radically new and useful result."
And it is insisted that this results because the tire is a new and patentable combination of parts, coacting in the manner of a true combination to produce a new and useful result, and is not an aggregation of old elements or parts, each performing its own function and nothing more. These propositions are combated by the rubber company, and it is insisted that the testimony is "conclusive and uncontradicted that the Grant tire, clamped to the tire or rim by the straining tension of the two wires," has not the capacity attributed to it, "and never could have." And it is said that "it is manifest that this question can be easily determined as a question of fact," and that the testimony "proves such asserted movement a myth and a fallacy." And it is urged that such capacity in the tire is not recited in the specifications of the patent, and was unknown to Grant.
not necessary that he understand or be able to state the scientific principles underlying his invention, and it is immaterial whether he can stand a successful examination as to the speculative ideas involved. Andrews v. Cross, 8 F. 269; Eames v. Andrews, 122 U. S. 40, 122 U. S. 55; St. Louis Stamping Co. v. Quinby, 16 Off.Gaz. 135; Pfeifer v. Dixon-Woods Co., 55 F. 390; Cleveland Foundry Co. v. Detroit Vapor Stove Co., 131 F. 853; Van Epps v. United Box Board & Paper Co., 143 F. 869; Westmoreland Specialty Co. v. Hogan, 167 F. 327. He must, indeed, make such disclosure and description of his invention that it may be put into practice. In this he must be clear. He must not put forth a puzzle for invention or experiment to solve, but the description is sufficient if those skilled in the art can understand it. This satisfies the law, which only requires as a condition of its protection that the world be given something new and that the world be taught how to use it. It is no concern of the world whether the principle upon which the new construction acts be obvious or obscure, so that it inheres in the new construction.
and efficiency. Grant's situation demanded caution and knowledge. He was confronted by what has been termed a "crowded" prior art; he might expect to encounter litigation, and, even before litigation, he would have to satisfy the Patent Office of the novelty and utility of his device, and it is hard to believe that he did not know the cooperating law of the elements which he had combined, and only unconsciously made use of it. We find the contention difficult to handle. When a person produces useful instrument, to say that he did not know what he was about is at least confusing. To take from him the advantage of it upon nice speculation as to whether it was an ignorant guess or confident knowledge and adaptation might do him great injustice. His success is his title to consideration.
"the old art was crowded with numerous prototypes and predecessors of this Grant tire, with every thought and suggestion of novelty and utility that can be found in drawings and specifications of the Grant patent, or in the idealized contentions as to the patent by the visions and dreams of the experts and counsel for the patent."
whether the others do or not."
They are both English patents issued to Frank Stanley Willoughby. We copy from the rubber company's brief the figures of the patent 5,924.
shows the flanges somewhat inwardly inclined with the two retaining wires, and Fig. 7a shows the flanges vertical with two retaining wires, the retaining wires in Fig. 8a being below the outer periphery of the flanges, and the two retaining wires of Fig. 7a being centrally located, as to their openings, with the periphery of the flanges. In Fig. 6, however, which is a pneumatic tire (a tire when highly inflated is as solid as a rubber tire), the flanges are outwardly flaring, and the two retaining wires are substantially below the periphery of the flanges."
be denied the tire, for the reason that the rubber is confined by the V-shaped channel."
"The Willoughby patent, No. 18,030, shows wire connection, flaring flanges, and angle (see Figs. 26, 30, 31), and in mere coincidence of parts seems to be the nearest approach to the Grant tire. But look at these figures, and all possible conception of coincidence of function is dissipated at once. There is the flaring rim, in which is seated a rubber upon which is placed a steel outer tire, through which pass the openings and wires. The angle is far without the upper edges of the rim, and it appears that neither function ascribed to the Grant tire is obtained."
"above the periphery of the flanges, another substantially on a line with the periphery of the flanges, and three of the figures showing the retaining wires substantially below the periphery of the respective flanges."
"The object of my present invention is, as in my previous one, to provide a metallic outer tire or armor to rubber which is of itself flexible."
The retaining wires hold the metallic exterior to the rubber bed.
"The patented organization must be one that is essential. Its use in the precise form described and shown in the patent must be inevitably necessary."
That the tire is an invention is fortified by all of the presumptions -- the presumption of the patent by that arising from the utility of the tire. And we have said that the utility of a device may be attested by the litigation over it, as litigation "shows and measures the existence of the public demand for its use." Eames v. Andrews, 122 U. S. 40, 122 U. S. 53. We have shown the litigation to which the grant tire has been subjected.
"(1) that the tire can be held in place and fixed upon its base by straining the wires to a clamping point; (2) the production, by mechanical means, cheaply and expeditiously as a commercial product, of the channel rim in straight lengths, to be applied to the wheel, and (3) the improvement of the rubber itself; the demand of the public for a solid rubber tire, and the wealth of the complainant, advertising in the market, and pushing and exploiting the tire."
The first ground is a somewhat distant assertion that the tire does not involve invention, but as to that we have sufficiently expressed opinion. The second ground is an inversion of cause and effect, and there is an obvious answer to the third ground. Without suitable rubber, there could have been no rubber tires, and the desire for them necessarily induced their manufacture, and Grant exercised invention to produce an efficient one. We can understand that some advertising was necessary to bring it into notice, and give it a certain use, but the extensive use which it attained, and more certainly the exclusive use which it attained, could only have been the result of its essential excellence -- indeed, its pronounced superiority over all other forms. Here again in our discussion, a comparison is suggested between it and other tires, and the inquiry occurs why capital has selected it to invest in and advertise, and not one of the tires of the prior art, if it be not better than they? But the effect of advertising is mere speculation; to the utility and use of an article the law assigns a definite presumption of its character, as we have seen, and which we are impelled by the facts of this record to follow.
from all that preceded it, that there is something in it, attribute or force, which did not exist before -- something which is the law of its organization and function, and raises it above a mere aggregation of elements to a patentable combination. And we may say, in passing, the elements of a combination may be all old. In making a combination, the inventor has the whole field of mechanics to draw from. Leeds & Catlin Co. v. Victor Talking Machine Co., 213 U.S. at page 213 U. S. 318.
151 F. 238. This conclusion is not shaken by the testimony and argument urged against it.
"as here presented, and as considered as contended for, if to be confined to exact angles and relations of angles and precise configuration of parts,"
"find the alleged invention, combinations, and devices of either of the claims of the Grant patent in suit embodied in or contained in either of the exhibits introduced in evidence professing to represent the defendant's tire."
"Of course, if your defense was that this defendant does not infringe, that would be an entirely different question; but the only question argued here is as to the validity of the patent."
In the opinion of the court of appeals noninfringement received no attention, presumably because that defense was not pressed upon it.
The final contention of the rubber company is that, the Grant patent having been declared invalid by the Circuit Court of Appeals of the Sixth Circuit and by the Circuit Court for the District of Indiana in the Seventh Circuit, the rubber company should not have been enjoined from the handling or sale of tires manufactured in the Sixth and Seventh Circuits, and cites Kessler v. Eldred, 206 U. S. 285.
"Whether it should be given a broader interpretation is a question upon which we express no opinion, deeming it more prudent to wait until the facts are fully developed."
"There is no occasion for attempting at this time to anticipate the future, and to provide for a contingency which may not arise. . . . To provide in a decree that the defendant is not enjoined from making, using, and selling devices which do not infringe, or which have been licensed, seems unnecessary. The doctrine of Eldred and Kessler, if carried to the extent contended for by the defendant, will introduce radical and far-reaching limitations upon the rights of patentees. These questions may not arise in the case at bar, but if they should, the court should have the facts, and all the facts, before attempting to decide them."

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