Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/213/325/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 05:18:50+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 213 › Leeds & Catlin Co. v. Victor Talking Machine Co.
Leeds & Catlin Co. v. Victor Talking Machine Co., ante, p. 213 U. S. 301, followed as to validity of Berliner patent for talking machines.
There is a distinction between the article which a combination machine deals with and the constituent elements composing the combination, and while it may not be infringement to supply the unpatented article dealt with by the combination, it is infringement to make and supply an unpatented element, necessary for the operation of the combination. Morgan Envelope Co. v. Albany Paper Co., 152 U. S. 425, distinguished.
The combination itself, regardless of whether any or all of the elements be old or new, is the invention, and, in law, is as much a unit as a single or noncomposite instrument, and one using or contributing to its use without permission infringes it.
Whether the elements of a combination patent are or are not patented is immaterial.
The right of substitution or resupply of elements of a combination extends only to repair and replacement made necessary by deterioration so as to preserve its fitness; license goes no further, and does not extend to furnishing such elements to increase effectiveness or variety of the results of the combination.
Unpatented elements of a patented combination may not be sold for use therewith, although they may legally be sold for use with other machines, and so held that it was infringement to sell record discs specially adapted therefor to the users of a patented talking machine although such discs were not patented and could lawfully be used in combination with other talking machines.
150 F. 147, 154 F. 58, affirmed.
This writ was issued to bring up for review the judgment of the circuit court, affirmed by the circuit court of appeals, adjudging petitioner guilty of contempt of court for violating the injunction which has just been considered in No. 80, and to pay a fine of $1,000, one-half to the United States and one-half to complainants in the suit, respondents here.
The injunction, as we said in the opinion in No. 80, enjoined petitioner, the Leeds & Catlin Company, from manufacturing, using, or selling the method expressed in Claim 5 of letters patent No. 534,543 to Emil Berliner, dated February 19, 1895, or the apparatus covered by Claim 35.
On the fifteenth of November, 1906, respondent Victor Talking Machine Company filed a petition in the circuit court, charging petitioner with a violation of such injunction. A rule was issued against the Leeds & Catlin Company to show cause why an attachment should not issue against it for contempt of court for violating the injunction, which came on to be heard upon supporting and opposing affidavits and the answer of the Leeds & Catlin Company.
A judgment was entered adjudging the Leeds & Catlin Company guilty of contempt, which was affirmed by the circuit court of appeals. 150 F. 147, 154 F. 58.
"hence the judgment finding defendant [petitioner] in contempt (a) was void because beyond the jurisdiction of the court, and (b) should be set aside because, the claims being void, the injunction was improperly granted."
These contentions are disposed of by the opinion in No. 80, and we may confine our discussions to the other defenses made in the contempt proceedings.
The facts are practically undisputed, and a detail of them is unnecessary. It is enough to say that petitioner is a manufacturer of disc records, such as are described in No. 80. That is, a record upon which is inscribed a lateral undulating groove of even depth, which, when the disc is revolved, compels the reproducing stylus to be vibrated and propelled across its face.
and so positioned and supported as to be free to be vibrated and propelled by the record."
"were knowingly made . . . to enable the owners of Victor talking machines to reproduce such musical pieces as they wished by the combination of the Leeds & Catlin record with said machines; that the Leeds & Catlin Company made no effort to restrict the use to which their records might be put until after motion to punish for contempt had been made; that the only effort at such restriction ever made was to insert upon the face of the record a notice to the effect that such record was intended and sold for use with the 'feed-device' machine; that the records sold by plaintiff in error [petitioner] were far more frequently bought to increase the repertoire of the purchaser's Victor machine than to replace worn-out or broken records."
"was not at or before the time of beginning this proceeding, a practically or commercially known reproducer of musical or spoken sound, whereas the Victor machine, embodying the claims of the Berliner patent here under consideration, was at such times widely known and generally used, and that the plaintiff in error [petitioner] knew, and sold its records with the knowledge that, if its output was to be used at all by the public, it would be used with the Victor machine, and in the combination protected by the claims of the Berliner patent, above referred to."
"made and sold a single element of the claims of the Berliner patent, with the intent that it should be united to the other element and complete the combination; and this is infringement. Heaton-Peninsular Co. v. Eureka Co., 77 F. 297, adopted by this court, Cortelyou v. Lowe, 111 F. 1005."
"the person who has purchased a patented combination from the patentee has the right to replace an unpatented element of the combination, and for such purpose to purchase such element from another than the patentee or his licensee."
"the majority of the circuit court of appeals has held that such replacement of a single unpatented element of the combination is reconstruction, and not within the rights of the purchaser of the patented combination from the patentee."
"the replacement of such element, if unpatented, by the purchaser of the combination from the patentee, is in accordance with the intention of the patentee, and not a reconstruction of the patented combination, but an act within the rights of the purchaser."
For these principles, Morgan Envelope Co. v. Albany Paper Co., 152 U. S. 425; Wilson v. Simpson, 9 How. 109; Goodyear Shoe Machinery Co. v. Jackson, 112 F. 146, are adduced.
The question in the case, therefore, is single and direct, and its discussion may be brought to a narrow compass. Its solution depends upon the application of some rudimentary principles of patent law.
A combination is a composition of elements, some of which may be old and others new, or all old or all new. It is, however, the combination that is the invention, and is as much a unit in contemplation of law as a single or noncomposite instrument.
Whoever uses it without permission is an infringer of it. It may be well here to get rid of a misleading consideration. It can make no difference as to the infringement or noninfringement of a combination that one of its elements or all of its elements are unpatented. For instance, in the case at bar, the issue between the parties would be exactly the same even if the record disc were a patented article which petitioner had a license to use or to which respondent had no rights independent of his right to its use in the combination. In other words, the fact that the disc sold by petitioner is unpatented does not affect the question involved except to give an appearance of a limitation of the rights of an owner of a Victor machine other than those which attach to him as a purchaser. The question is, what is the relation of the purchaser to the Victor Company? What rights does he derive from it? To use the machine, of course, but it is the concession of the argument of petitioner that he may not reconstruct it. Has he a license to repair deterioration, and when does repair become reconstruction? It would seem that, on principle, when deterioration of an element has reached the point of unfitness, there is a destruction of the combination, and a renewal of the element is a reconstruction of the combination. And it would also seem on principle that there could be no license implied from difference in the durability of the elements or periodicity in their use. This, however, is asserted, and we come to the consideration of the cases upon which the assertion is based, and how far it has application under the facts of this record.
in the former patent, with a mechanism for the delivery of the paper to the user in an economical manner."
"it would seem to follow that the log which is sawn in the mill, the wheat which is ground by the rollers, the pin which is produced by the patented machine, the paper which is folded and delivered by the printing press,"
"an article of manufacture, perishable in its nature which it is the object of the mechanism to deliver, and must be renewed periodically whenever the device is put to use."
or a single use. Neither are they temporary -- i.e., not intended to endure; on the contrary, we find them capable of remaining useful for an indefinite period, and believe that they usually last as long as does the vogue of the sounds they record."
"but it does comprehend and permit the resupply of the effective ultimate tool of the invention, which is liable to be often worn out or to become inoperative for its intended effect, which the inventor contemplated would have to be frequently replaced anew, during the time that the machine as a whole might last."
But there is no pretense in the case at bar of mending broken or worn-out records, or of repairing or replacing "the operative ultimate tool of the invention" which has deteriorated by use. The sales of petitioner, as found by the courts below and as established by the evidence, were not to furnish new records identical with those originally offered by the Victor Company, but, to use the language of Judge in the circuit court, "more frequently in order to increase the repertory of tunes than as substituted for worn-out records."
The right of substitution or "resupply" of an element depends upon the same test. The license granted to a purchaser of a patented combination is to preserve its fitness for use so far as it may be affected by wear or breakage. Beyond this, there is no license.
being unpatented articles of commerce, which could be used upon the mechanical feed-device machine or exported to foreign countries, or concededly for repair of machines sold by respondent, petitioner could legally sell the same. A detailed comment on this contention or of the cases cited to support it we need not make. The facts of the case exclude petitioner from the situation which is the foundation of the contention. The injunction did not forbid the use of the records, except in violation of Claims 5 and 35 of respondent's patent. The judgment for contempt was based upon the facts which we have detailed, and they show a sale of the records for use in the Victor machine -- "an entirely voluntary and intentional" (to use the language of Judge Lacombe) contributory infringement.
We have seen that the circuit court of appeals assumed, for the purposes of this cause, that the feed-device machine was not an infringement of the machine of the patent. We may assume the same, and we are relieved from reviewing the very long and complex affidavits submitted by the petitioner to explain the same, petitioner's relation to it, or its position in the art of sound reproduction. Petitioner was found guilty of selling records which constituted an element in the combination of the patent in suit, and for that petitioner was punished. Upon whatever questions or contentions may arise from the use of the feed-device machine we reserve opinion.
We have not reviewed or commented on the other cases cited respectively by petitioner and respondents in support of their contentions, deeming those we have considered and the principles we have announced sufficient for our decision.

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