Source: http://openjurist.org/614/f2d/1086/smith-v-acme-general-corporation
Timestamp: 2013-12-11 10:38:39
Document Index: 675025560

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 271', '§ 2201', '§ 102', '§ 271', '§ 132', '§ 115', '§ 25', '§ 112', '§ 285', '§ 2201', '§ 282']

614 F2d 1086 Smith v. Acme General Corporation | OpenJurist
614 F. 2d 1086 - Smith v. Acme General Corporation	Home614 f2d 1086 smith v. acme general corporation
614 F2d 1086 Smith v. Acme General Corporation 614 F.2d 1086
204 U.S.P.Q. 1060
Lester L. SMITH, Plaintiff-Appellant and Cross-Appellee,v.ACME GENERAL CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee and Cross-Appellant.
Nos. 77-3282-3.
Argued Feb. 15, 1979.Decided Jan. 15, 1980.
James H. Tilberry, Meyer, Tilberry & Body, Cleveland, Ohio, Keith K. Nicolls, William E. Lucas, McCaleb, Lucas & Brugman, John K. Lucas, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff-appellant and cross-appellee.
William C. Sessions, Stephen A. Hill, William C. McCoy, Jr., Bosworth, Sessions & McCoy, Cleveland, Ohio, C. Russell Hale, Christie, Parker & Hale, C. Russell Hale, Pasadena, Cal., for defendant-appellee and cross-appellant.
Plaintiff Lester L. Smith appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Honorable Robert B. Krupansky presiding, dismissing his complaint pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 271(a) and (b) for patent infringement and declaring the patent claim in suit invalid pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2201. Defendant ACME General Corporation (ACME) cross-appeals from the district court's denial of its prayer for attorneys' fees. We affirm Judge Krupansky.
In 1973, Smith, in Tucson, Arizona, and ACME, in San Dimas, California, independently developed an adjustable bottom pivot assembly for supporting and guiding a folding or swinging door.1 The record discloses that neither Smith nor ACME was aware of the other's development of a pivot assembly.
On January 28, 1974, Smith filed a patent application for the device which he had developed. The file history (BK. Ex. 128-186) of Smith's patent application shows that it had twelve (12) claims when it was originally filed.2 The claims stated that the bottom pivot has a pivot block (36) with a socket (57) in its upper face for receiving a pivot pin (37), and with an offset lower anchor portion (61) having serrated teeth for engaging teeth on the jamb bracket.3
In March, 1974, Smith visited ACME's offices in San Dimas, California and offered to sell or license to ACME the overall hardware assembly, including the bottom pivot, that Smith had developed. However, ACME informed Smith that it was not interested in Smith's assembly and further that ACME was already marketing its own bottom pivot assembly. ACME also gave Smith one of ACME's assemblies.4 On April 18, 1974, Smith amended his patent application by adding a thirteenth (13th) claim. Claim 13 states that a "support means" interjoins the pivot pin and the jamb bracket in lieu of reciting the pivot block, as was done in the prior claims. It used functional language ("support means") to define the pivot block.5 Initially, this new claim was rejected by the patent office under 35 U.S.C. § 102 as being fully anticipated by "Reference A," the prior art patent No. 3,597,790 to Kellems which is owned by ACME.6
On October 17, 1974, Smith amended this new Claim 13. The amended Claim 13 specified that the serrated teeth on the jamb bracket project inwardly from the opposing lengthwise edges of an opening in the jamb bracket to engage the serrated teeth on the pivot "support means." Smith relied upon that tooth arrangement to get Claim 13 allowed over the Kellems patent No. 3,597,790 which disclosed all of the other features of that claim. Claim 13 is the subject matter of this patent action.
Smith's application for the amended Claim 13 was allowed on October 30, 1974, and the patent issued on February 18, 1975, Patent No. 3,866,658. After failing in his attempt to sell or license hardware assemblies having a five-piece bottom pivot corresponding to that shown in Fig. 2 to 5 of the patent in suit, Smith, in the Spring of 1975, adopted a bottom pivot assembly similar to ACME's (the accused) device.7
On August 15, 1975, Smith instituted the present action for infringement against ACME. The complaint alleged that defendant ACME infringed plaintiff's United States Letter Patent No. 3,866,658 (658) "Pivotal Support and Guide Hardware for Folding Doors," by selling and using, and by actively inducing others to use, hardware claimed in this patent in violation of plaintiff's rights pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 271(a) and (b). The plaintiff prayed for treble damages, injunctive relief and attorney's fees.
In its answer, ACME denied the infringement and asserted by way of affirmative defense that plaintiff's patent is invalid because:
1) the subject matter of the claims of Patent No. '658 and every material and substantial part thereof had been described in public use or sale in the United States and/or described in patents prior to the invention thereof, for over one year prior to the filing in the United States Patent Office of the application upon which said patent was issued;
2) Smith is not the first inventor of the subject matter of Patent No. '658;
3) Smith did not himself invent the subject matter of the claims of Patent No. '658;
4) the subject matter of Claim 13 of Patent No. '658 was filed with the United States Patent Office subsequent to plaintiff's examination of defendant's allegedly infringing hardware (the accused device) in violation of 35 U.S.C. § 132;
5) the subject matter of Claim 13 was filed without the requisite oath, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 115; or declaration, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 25;
6) the subject matter of Patent No. '658 was non-obvious; and,
7) the claims of Patent No. '658 do not "particularly point out and distinctly claim" the alleged invention as required by 35 U.S.C. § 112.
ACME also counterclaimed for attorney's fees pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 285 and a declaration pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2201 that it has neither infringed, contributorily infringed, nor induced infringement of Patent No. '658 and that the patent is invalid and void.
After a bench trial the district court, in a Memorandum Opinion and Order filed January 10, 1977, found that Smith's patent was not infringed by ACME and also that Smith's claim in suit (Claim 13) is invalid. In a judgment filed January 17, 1977, the district court dismissed Smith's complaint and entered judgment for ACME on its counterclaim for a declaratory judgment. However, the district court denied ACME's prayer for attorney's fees. Both sides appealed.
On appeal Smith attacks every factual finding made and conclusion of law reached by the district court in its determination that the accused device did not infringe upon Patent '658 and that Patent '658 was invalid for obviousness. However Smith's objections can be grouped into four categories: that '658 should be presumptively valid, that '658 was not obvious at the time the patent was issued, that '658 achieved a synergistic result, and that the accused device infringed '658. Because this Court holds that '658 is obvious and therefore invalid in light of the pertinent prior art, it is unnecessary to examine the issue of infringement.
Folding door installations are used to provide easily openable and closable enclosures providing maximum access to and through a door opening in which the installation is mounted. Folding doors have the advantage of not requiring excessive room for swinging door movements as is required for a conventionally mounted door. Folding doors or "bifold" doors as they are referred to in the industry, are commonly used in closets. Generally a door is composed of two panels adjacent to each other with the end panel connecting the door unit to the wall by a hinge assembly. Heavy wood has proven unsuitable for use in sliding doors. Although lighter wooden panels and reinforced plastic doors have been used, the supporting hardware and costs of installation and maintenance have been too expensive from both a manufacturing and an installation standpoint. Apparently the hardware art industry felt it desirable to develop pivot assemblies that permitted maximum maneuverability of bifold doors at the least cost. According to Smith, the objective for '658 was to stop doors from popping open, make them easy to adjust and to reduce the cost to a reasonable figure.THE PATENT IN SUIT '658
As the diagram in footnote seven illustrates, '658 is a bottom pivot assembly composed of an angle bracket L-shaped in profile, a plastic square pivot block which is mounted on top of the bracket, a threaded bolt termed a bottom pivot member (the end of which fits into the opening on top of the pivot block), a nut attached to the bolt located above the end placed in the pivot block's opening and a container for the rest of the bolt called a housing means which is inserted into a hole underneath the edge of the door panel. The housing means has splices on the outside which stabilizes placement inside the door. The bottom pivot member is then screwed into the housing means with the end of the bottom member fitting into the opening of the pivot block.
The manner in which the assembly works together occurs by virtue of a series of serrations (sharp teeth resembling a saw) located on designated parts of the pieces. In the center of the L-shaped angle there is an elongated opening, the edges of which are serrated. These teeth are engaged by the bottom of the pivot block which has a cube-like anchor projection. Near the top of this projection underneath the pivot block, the surface has also been serrated. Once the anchor projection becomes engaged with the teeth in the elongated opening of the bracket, the intertwined teeth lock the position of the entire unit including the door. The door is stabilized in this manner.
Smith maintains that '658 contains a novel supporting function as well as a novel means for adjusting the position of the door both vertically and horizontally. Smith asserts that his patent supports a portion of the door weight and alleviates binding and turning movement forces on the pivotal support system. Vertical adjustment is accomplished because the threads on the bolt (bottom pivot means) permit the bolt to be screwed up into the door inside the housing means. This operation may be performed by hand. Before the manual turning of the bolt, however, the door must be raised to disengage the pivot means from the opening in the pivot block. The serrations on the elongated openings permit horizontal movement by disengaging the pivot means, moving the pivot block to the desired location and putting the pivot means in the pivot block.
We turn now to the questions of presumptive validity, obviousness and synergism and the grounds upon which we agree with, and affirm, the district court's finding that Smith's patent is invalid.
I. THE PRESUMPTION OF VALIDITY
Congress has determined that a patent is presumed valid and that the burden of proving invalidity is on the defendant. See 35 U.S.C. § 282. This court has acknowledged that every patent issued by the Patent Office carries, at the outset, a presumption of validity justified by the complexities of patent law and the expertise of the Patent Office. Bolkcom v. Carborundum Co., 523 F.2d 492, 498 (6th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 951, 96 S.Ct. 1725, 48 L.Ed.2d 194 (1976). The district court's finding that this presumption of validity was entitled to little, if any, weight was