Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/113/97/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 04:43:37+00:00

Document:
A patent for a combination of separate parts does not cover each part when taken separately.
A patent for a combination is not infringed by use of one of the parts which, united with others, makes the combination unless other mechanical equivalents, known to be such when the patent was granted, are substituted for the omitted parts.
Seeding machines manufactured according to the specifications in patent No. 152,708 for a new and useful improvement in seeding machines, granted to John H. Thomas and Joseph W. Thomas, June 30, 1874, do not infringe the reissued letters patent, No. 2,909, granted to John S. Rowell and Ira Rowell, for a new and useful improvement in cultivators.
This was a suit in equity brought by the plaintiffs in error as plaintiffs below, to restrain the defendants in error from infringing reissued patent No. 2,909 for a new and useful improvement in cultivators, granted to the plaintiffs, March 31, 1868. The defendants denied the infringement, and justified the manufacture of the machines alleged to be such by patent No. 152,706, granted to John H. Thomas and Joseph W. Thomas, June 30, 1874, for a new and useful improvement in seeding machines. A decree was made below in favor of the defendants, from which the plaintiffs appealed.
"Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the tooth, in a beam shown in longitudinal section."
together against the brace bar, so as to clamp it in any required position, and thereby adjust the tooth in any inclination at the same time allowing it to yield to immovable obstacles without breaking."
"In the drawings, A represents one of the beams of a cultivator; B the shank, pivoted at b; B', the tooth; C, a curved brace bar extending in the arc of a circle outward and upward from the rear side of the shank B, and its upper end passing vertically through a longitudinal slot or mortise a in the beam A and D, a bolt, passing transversely through the slot or mortise, and having a head d, on one end, and a nut d', on the other, by which the side walls of the slot or mortise can be clamped against the brace bar with any required force, thereby holding the latter in position when operating in the field. It is evident that in a device thus constructed and operating, the brace bar C can be so clamped that the tooth will retain its position when working in arable soil, but will yield when coming in contact with an immovable obstacle, and pass over it without breaking, the shank turning back upon its pivot b and the brace bar being forced up through the slot. The same arrangement also allows the shank to be adjusted in any position for deep or shallow cultivating."
"The combination of the slotted beam A, shank B, brace bar C, and bolt D, when the parts are constructed and arranged to operate as and for the purposes herein specified."
bolt E. By making it in one piece, its construction is greatly cheapened as compared with that class where an arm has to be welded into the shank."
"In combination with the drag bar A, bifurcated at A2, the curved shovel standard C, bent as shown and pivoted by bolt at D and clamped by bolt E, substantially as shown and described."
Upon final hearing upon the pleadings and proofs, the circuit court dismissed the bill, and the plaintiffs appealed.
The evidence shows that the shanks or standards of plows, cultivators, and seeding machines have been used in a great variety of forms. In some, the upper end of the brace entered the beam in the rear, and in others, in front of the shank. In some, the upper end of the shank and the brace were so formed and united as to present an elliptical figure. Many, perhaps the majority, were without braces. In some, the upper end of the shank was made with a head in the form of an elliptical or circular plate, called an enlarged head. This performed the function of a brace. The patent of the plaintiffs therefore stands on narrow ground, and to sustain it, it must be so construed as to confine it substantially to the form described in the specification.
and public.' See also Merrill v. Yeomans, 94 U. S. 573; Water Meter Co. v. Desper, 101 U. S. 332, 101 U. S. 337; Miller v. Brass Co., 104 U. S. 350. These authorities dispose of the contention of the plaintiffs' counsel that their patent covers one of the separate elements which enters into the combination -- namely a slotted wooden beam -- because, as they contend, that element is new, and is the original invention of the patentees."
"This combination, composed of all the parts mentioned in the specification and arranged with reference to each other and to other parts of the plow in the manner therein described, is stated to be the improvement, and is the thing patented. The use of any two of these parts only, or of two combined with a third which is substantially different in form or in the manner of its arrangement and connection with the others, is therefore not the thing patented. It is not the same combination if it substantially differs from it in any of its parts. The jogging of the standard into the beam, and its extension backward from the bolt, are both treated by the plaintiffs as essential parts of their combination for the purpose of brace and draft. Consequently the use of either alone would not be the same improvement nor infringe the patent of the plaintiffs."
To the same effect, See also Stimpson v. Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad Co., 10 How. 329; Eames v. Godfrey, 1 Wall. 78; Seymour v. Osborne, 11 Wall. 516; Dunbar v. Myers, 94 U. S. 187; Fuller v. Yentzer, 94 U. S. 288.
But this rule is subject to the qualification that a combination may be infringed when some of the elements are employed, and for the others mechanical equivalents are used, which were known to be such at the time when the patent was granted. Seymour v. Osborne, ubi supra; 82 U. S. Rees, 15 Wall. 187; Imhaeuser v. Buerk, 101 U. S. 647.
covered by the patent of the plaintiffs, is not, nor is its equivalent, found in the machines made and sold by them. It is plain, upon an inspection of the drawings, that the defendants do not use a brace bar similar in shape or position to that described in the plaintiffs' patent.
they do not employ an equivalent, it follows that they do not infringe the plaintiffs' patent.
The decree of the circuit court, which dismissed the plaintiffs' bill, is affirmed.

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