Case Name: In re LOBDELL
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1925-12-07
Citations: 10 F.2d 656
Docket Number: No. 1771
Parties: In re LOBDELL.
Judges: Before MARTIN, Chief Justice, ROBB, Associate Justice, and SMITH, Judge of the United States Court of Customs Appeals.
Reporter: Federal Reporter 2d Series
Volume: 10
Pages: 656–656

Head Matter:
In re LOBDELL.
(Court of Appeals of District of Columbia.
Submitted November 13, 1925.
Decided December 7, 1925.
Petition for Rehearing Denied December 24, 1925.)
No. 1771.
C. S. Grindle and J. A. Watson, both of Washington, D. C., for appellant.
T. A. Hostetler, of Washington, D. C., for Commissioner of Patents.
Before MARTIN, Chief Justice, ROBB, Associate Justice, and SMITH, Judge of the United States Court of Customs Appeals.

Opinion:
ROBB, Associate Justice.
Appeal from a decision of the Patent Office refusing claims for a patent on an automobile steering wheel. Claim 1, of the several claims, is sufficiently illustrative, and is. here reproduced :
"1. A steering wheel for motor vehicles comprising a metal hub having a plurality of sockets arranged in substantially the same plane, a wooden rim rounded in cross-seetion throughout and adapted to be gripped at any point transversely by the hand of the operator, and wooden spokes having their inner ends mounted in said sockets of the hub and their outer ends rigidly secured to said rim."
Appellant has substituted for the spokes of the prior art wooden spokes, and, while his wheel undoubtedly is superior in some respects to the wheels of the prior art, we are constrained to agree with the Assistant Commissioner that the advantages claimed for this wheel are inherent and universally known to reside in the material employed, and that the substitution of wooden spokes, in view of the teachings of the prior art, did not involve invention. The decision is affirmed.
Affirmed.