Case Name: LUNDIE v. SELLERS MFG. CO.
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1923-04-18
Citations: 290 F. 811
Docket Number: No. 3088
Parties: LUNDIE v. SELLERS MFG. CO.
Judges: 
Reporter: Federal Reporter
Volume: 290
Pages: 811–812

Head Matter:
LUNDIE v. SELLERS MFG. CO.
(Circuit Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.
April 18, 1923.
Rehearing Denied June 14, 1923.)
No. 3088.
Patents <©=328 — 986,698, for railway tie. plate, not infringed.
The Doster patent, No. 986,698, for railway tie plate, held not infringed.
<©=For other oases see same topic & KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests & Indexes
Appeal from the District Court of the United States for the Eastern Division of the Northern District of Illinois.
Suit in equity by John Lundie against the Sellers Manufacturing Company. Decree for defendant, and complainant appeals.
Affirmed, and petition for rehearing denied.'
Thomas Ewing, of New York City, and Geo. I. Haight, of Chicago, Ill., for appellant.
Otto R. Barnett, of Chicago, Ill., for appellee.
Before BAKER, EVANS,, and PAGE, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
BAKER, Circuit Judge.
Appellant failed in his suit for alleged infringement of patent No. 986,698, March 14, 1911, to Doster for improvements in railway tie plates.
Concerning the alleged infringing tie plates, made and sold by appellee in 1917, the trial court made the following finding of fact:
"This plate differs-in no respect, save size, from the hundreds of thousands of plates made and sold by defendant since 1900."
Inasmuch as the briefs and the oral presentation of the case, as well as our subsequent examination of the record, failed to convince us that the foregoing finding of fact is- contrary to the truth, it is quite evident that the decree of dismissal must be affirmed, because the Doster patent could not reach back and render unlawful what the Sellers Company had been publicly using for 10 years prior to the Doster application.
The decree is affirmed.