Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/315/759/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 13:55:27+00:00

Document:
Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 315 › Muncie Gear Works, Inc. v. Outboard Marine Co.
Muncie Gear Works, Inc. v. Outboard Marine & Manufacturing Co.
1. The Court considered as a reason for the granting of certiorari to review a decision of a Circuit Court of Appeals sustaining claim of a patent as to which there was no conflict of decision, the fact that the patent dominated a substantial portion of an industry so concentrated in one circuit that a conflict of decision was unlikely. P. 315 U. S. 765.
2. Claims 11, 12, 13 and 14 of Johnson patent No. 1,716,962, for an alleged invention to overcome cavitation in the operation of relatively large and fast outboard motors, held invalid under R.S. § 4866, because of public use, or sale, of devices embodying the alleged invention, more than two years before the first disclosure thereof to the Patent Office. P. 315 U. S. 768.
3. Upon the record in this case, held that a decision by this Court of the question under R.S. § 4866 was not foreclosed by the obscurity of its presentation in the courts below. P. 315 U. S. 768.
Certiorari 314 U.S. 594, to review a judgment which reversed a judgment of the District Court, and held the claims of a patent valid and infringed.
We are required in this case to determine the validity of claims numbered 11, 12, 13, and 14 of letters patent No.
1,716,962, granted on June 11, 1929, to Harry L. Johnson for invention in a "water propulsion device." Respondent Johnson Brothers Engineering Corporation is the owner of the patent, and respondent Outboard, Marine & Manufacturing Company, is the exclusive licensee thereunder. Petitioner Muncie Gear Works, Inc., manufactured outboard motors which are claimed to infringe, and petitioner Bruns & Collins, Inc., sold them.
Respondents contend that this as a validly issued patent covering an invention which solved the problems of "cavitation" by relatively large and fast outboard motors. "Cavitation" is the drawing of air by the propeller from above the surface of the water to the propeller itself. Air so drawn reduces the propulsive effect of the propeller and causes "racing" of the motor, with consequent risk of its disintegration and danger to the user. Increased speed or power entails a greater tendency to cavitate. Cavitation may be diminished by setting the propeller deeper in the water, but this increased projection increases resistance and retards speed.
below the plate so as to reduce water displacement and resistance, and thus to reduce or eliminate eddy currents forming vortexes through which air can be sucked into the propeller. This permits adequate control of cavitation by means of a not unduly large anti-cavitation plate.
was being employed in any novel cooperative relation to the other elements.
All of the claims of the application as originally made were rejected on December 15, 1926. On December 13, 1927, Johnson offered amendments which retained and amended the prior claims and added others directed to the feature of the deflection plate. In urging allowance, he said, among other things: "It is conceded that cavitation plates are old in the art as shown in the patent to Johnson cited," and he proceeded to urge as an invention the combination of the cavitation plate and the arching member of reflection plate. A similar supplemental amendment was filed on January 19, 1928. Several of the original claims as amended were allowed, and the rest of the claims rejected, on June 7, 1928.
"smooth and unbroken walls." Claims 11 and 13 were silent on the subject. The amendment also set forth an addition to the description which was incorporated in the description of the patent as issued. Here, we find the expression "relatively smooth and substantially streamline surfaces." Other than these, no indication of the nature of the surface or cross-section of the housing was given at any time during the prosecution of the application.
of decision with respect to these claims, [Footnote 7] we granted certiorari in view of the questions presented and because the patent dominates a substantial portion of an industry so concentrated in the Seventh Circuit that litigation in other circuits, resulting in a conflict of decisions, is unlikely. 314 U.S. 594. Schriber-Schroth Co. v. Cleveland Trust Co., 305 U. S. 47.
In an effort to avoid the effect of this provision, respondents contend that the question of its applicability was not raised either in the District Court or in the Circuit Court of Appeals, that there was no opportunity to meet the issue, and that the invention as finally claimed was disclosed by the application as originally made, or, in any event, as amended on December 8, 1928.
two-year period is of any significance in the present case. . . ."
It is clear to us, however, that the amendments of December 8, 1928, like the original application, wholly failed to disclose the invention now asserted.
The claims in question are invalid if there was public use, or sale of the device which they are claimed to cover, more than two years before the first disclosure thereof to the Patent Office. Cf. Railway Co. v. Sayles, 97 U. S. 554, 97 U. S. 557-559, 97 U. S. 563-564; Schriber-Schroth Co. v. Cleveland Trust Co., supra, at 305 U. S. 57. Section 4886 of the Revised Statutes would in terms provide for their invalidity, had they been offered by application rather than by amendment, and, whatever may be the efficacy of an amendment as a substitute for an application, it surely can effect no more than the application itself.
We think the conclusion is inescapable that there was public use, or sale, of devices embodying the asserted invention more than two years before it was first presented to the Patent Office. We are not foreclosed from a decision under Section 4886 on the point by the obscurity of its presentation in the courts below. This issue has been fully presented to this Court by the petition for a writ of certiorari and in subsequent briefs and argument, and there is not the slightest indication that respondents have been prejudiced by such obscurity. To sustain the claims in question upon the established and admitted facts would require a plain disregard of the public interest sought to be safeguarded by the patent statutes, and so frequently present but so seldom adequately represented in patent litigation.
We therefore hold that the claims in question are invalid under Section 4886 of the Revised Statutes, and accordingly have no occasion to decide any other question in the case.
Smith, No. 1,226,400 (1917); Johnson, No. 1,467,641 (1923).
No question has ever been raised in this case respecting the veracity of this oath. Cf. Elizabeth v. American Nicholson Pavement Co., 97 U. S. 126, 97 U. S. 130.
The patent here involved and two others were litigated in one suit, with which was consolidated another suit involving five other patents. One of the patents was withdrawn prior to trial, and the courts below disposed of six of the seven remaining patents adversely to the respondents.
"The defendants are informed and believe, and therefore aver, that each of the Letters Patent in suit was and is void and of no effect in law in that the alleged inventions or improvements described therein were invented by, or known to, or used by others in the United States before the alleged inventions of the said patentees of the patents in suit, and for more than two years prior to the respective applications for said patents, among which prior inventors and users and those having prior knowledge are the patentees and their assigns of the several Letters Patents named in the annexed schedule 'A,' at the places and addresses named in said Letters Patent, and other prior inventors, users and those having prior knowledge the names of whom, and the times and places of such other public uses, being at the present time unknown to defendants, but which, when fully ascertained, defendants pray leave to insert in this Answer by amendments thereto. [No such amendment was ever made or attempted.]"
"Defendants are informed and believe, and therefore aver, that each of the Letters Patent in suit is invalid and void for the reason that the alleged invention thereof purported to be patented thereby are not the same as were disclosed in the application therefor as originally filed, but are substantially different from any invention indicated, described, or suggested in the original applications therefor; that the applications therefor were amended in the specification and claims during the prosecution thereof, and the alleged patented subject matter is not supported by oath, as required by law; that the said applications were unlawfully enlarged during the prosecution thereof, and that the claims of said Letters Patent are invalid and void for the reason that they include matter not shown or adequately described in the said patents."
"Q. Are you familiar with the type of lower unit construction which is shown on this chart reproduced from the drawings of the Johnson patent No. 1,716,962?"
"Q. Do you recall when such a construction was introduced to the market, and by whom?"
"A. To the best of my recollection it was for the model year of 1926, which would mean it was probably introduced about January or February of 1926."
"A. By Johnson Motor Company."
"Q. At that time, was Evinrude Motor Company a competitor of Johnson Motor Company?"
"Q. At that time, was Elto Motor Company a competitor of Johnson Motor Company?"
"Q. At that time, was Lockwood-Ash Motor Company a competitor of Johnson Motor Company?"
"Q. What was the result of the introduction of this model by Johnson Motor Company in 1926?"
"A. As far as I was concerned, I was connected with the Lockwood-Ash Motor Company that was making a motor in 1926 and not having that combination; and, not having it, we did not have the satisfactory performance that the Johnson combination had."
"Q. In what respect did your motor not have as satisfactory a performance?"
"Q. What did your motor lack particularly of the structure shown in this Johnson patent?"
"A. We did not have an anti-cavitation plate."
"Q. What did you do to remedy this difficulty?"
"A. In the fall of 1926, for the 1927 model year, we put on an anti-cavitation plate."
"Q. Did that remedy your difficulty, so far as cavitation was concerned?"
"Q. Do you know what was done by Evinrude and Elto?"
"A. My recollection is that, possibly not at the same moment, I doubt Evinrude did the same year, put on an anti-cavitation plate on the stream line housing. I don't remember clearly whether Elto did it that year or the next, but they subsequently did put on the same combination."
"Q. How long has it been true that all of the larger sizes of outboard motors have been equipped with smooth walled lower unit housings, anti-cavitation plates intermediate the top and bottom thereof, and internal water passages."
"A. They became popular about 1926, and from then on practically all of them have been made that way."
"In considering these claims, it is appropriate to first have in mind their historical background, in view of the importance that Plaintiffs place upon them as being for subject matter that 'solved a problem' previously 'stalling' a great industry. In the first place, the subject matter of these claims was in no way considered in or made a part of the original application. . . . It was not until more than two years later that the patentee, on December 6, 1928, by his amendment 'C,' added claims to his application covering any of the matter that is now deemed to be of such great importance. Then, for the first time, the patentee claimed, in claims originally numbered 17 to 25, inclusive, the anti-cavitation plate apart from the limitations which characterized his originally filed disclosures and originally filed claims."
They had previously been sustained by a District Court in the Sixth Circuit. Johnson Brothers Engineering Corp. v. Caille Bros. Co., 8 F.Supp. 198. Caille is no longer in the business.
The period is now one year. Act of August 5, 1939, 53 Stat. 1212, 35 U.S.C. § 31.

References: v. 
 v. 
 § 4866
 § 4866
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 § 31