Opinion ID: 292012
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: validity of the patent and construction of its claims

Text: 7 Appellant Allied first argues that the patent is invalid because it was anticipated by the Calso device. The Calso base and the patented invention of course have some characteristics in common, most notably the hinge, but there are also major elements that make the patented device a different invention from Calso. These differences are the essence of the patent. Sterner's licensor, in describing the patent in the trial court, pointed out the following differences between it and the prior art: (1) The base plate is flat and attached to the bottom of the pole and bolts around its edges are used to keep it down. (2) The ballast (that is, the weighting material, which also happens to be the electrical equipment) is in the pole itself rather than in the base. (3) Ventilation space is provided at the bottom. (4) The sides of the base are covered by a skirt attached to the base plate (5) 'Bosses,' or knobs, from below, hold up the edge of the base plate that is not supported by the hinge. 8 In order to show anticipation, Allied's witnesses attempted to show that the Calso device embodied equivalents of all these characteristics. For example, testimony equated the sides of the Calso pyramidal base with the pole on the patented device, in order to show that the ballast in Calso was also in the pole. The trouble with this approach is that the Calso pedestal base is different from a pole in structure: It is bigger, heavier, and not as strong. Similarly, the testimony equated the sides of the Calso pedestal, several feet high, with the skirt surrounding the patented device, which is only a few inches high. These elements serve the same functions in the two devices, but again they are structurally different. The jury found against Allied on the issue of anticipation. 9 Anticipation is largely a question of fact. See Graham v. John Deere Co., 1965, 383 U.S. 1, 86 S.Ct. 684, 15 L.Ed.2d 545; Swofford v. B & W Inc., 5th Cir. 1968, 395 F.2d 362; American Fidelity & Cas. Co. v. Drexler, 5th Cir. 1955, 220 F.2d 930, 932-933. There are cases in which anticipation depends so heavily upon issues of law that it may be reviewed directly by an appellate court, but this is not such a case. Cf. Beckman Instruments, Inc. v. Chemtronics, Inc., supra. A jury verdict on the factual issue of anticipation will not be overturned unless fair-minded men could not disagree as to a contrary result. We hold that the jury's finding that the patent was not anticipated by the Calso device is not reversible on this appeal.
10 Allied also urges that the patent is invalid because the innovations that make it what it is would be obvious to a person possessing ordinary skill in the art. Obviousness is a difficult, elusive standard to apply. The Supreme Court has recently dealt with the concept in several opinions. In one such case, United States v. Adams, 1965, 383 U.S. 39, 86 S.Ct. 708, 15 L.Ed.2d 572, the Court considered a patent on a special kind of battery. The patent specifically described the components and their relation to each other. The components were all known, but the combination was a specific solution to technical problems that required the exercise of some skill because the components had to be chosen so that they worked together. The Court therefore held the patent valid. By contrast, in Anderson's-Black Rock, Inc. v. Pavement Salvage Co., 1969, 396 U.S. 57, 90 S.Ct. 305, 24 L.Ed.2d 258, the Court held a patent on a device to lay asphalt pavement invalid. The device was the first successful machine of its kind. But it was merely a combination of known elements that produced no synergistic result, to which the patentee had contributed no novel arrangement. His patent was invalid because it required him to do nothing but adopt known components, and it was not saved by the fact that no one had ever so used them before. See also Graham v. John Deere Co., supra; cf. Beckman Instruments, Inc. v. Chemtronics, Inc., supra. Our question on this appeal is whether the Sterner patent is closer to the Adams or to the Anderson's-Black Rock situation, and it appears from the decisions that the key to this question is whether the patentee has solved non-trivial technical problems by purposefully manipulating variables so as to elicit a synergistic result from his materials. 11 Allied, the accused infringer, has advanced an appealing argument that the patent is actually obvious. It contends that since the main problem exhibited by the known-art devices was their bulkiness and weight, the solution Sterner came up with-- namely, making the base smaller-- is obvious. Also, they point out that putting the electrical components in the pole rather than in the base does not solve a very sophisticated technical problem, especially since the electrical components are in the same place they would be in the Calso prior-art base if that base were shaped as the Sterner base is. There is a good deal of force to this argument, and if recognizing these characteristics were all there was to construing the patent, it would not be valid. 12 In applying the substantive standards of patentability to the invention in this case, however, we must follow established principles of patent construction. A presumption of validity attaches to patents that have survived the scrutiny of the Patent Office, and therefore the courts must construe those claims narrowly so as to avoid anticipation and obviousness if that is at all possible. 35 U.S.C. 282 (1954); Helms Prod. v. Lake Shore Mfg. Co., 7th Cir. 1955, 227 F.2d 677, 680; Williams Mfg. Co. v. United Shoe Mach. Corp., 6th Cir. 1941, 121 F.2d 273, aff'd 316 U.S. 364, 62 S.Ct. 1179, 86 L.Ed. 1537. And it is to be emphasized that it is the claims of the patent, and not any particular device manufactured by the patentee, to which we must look. Beckman Instruments, Inc. v. Chemtronics, supra; Hensley Equip. Co. v. Esco Corp., 5th Cir. 1967, 383 F.2d 252. Those claims must adequately and specifically describe a patentable invention. Thus it happens as a practical matter that patents claiming narrow, specific inventions are more likely to withstand attack on anticipation or obviousness grounds than patents that make broad, general claims, however humble or exalted the actual product of the inventor's mind may have been. 13 As a consequence of these principles, we are able to hold that the patent in suit, which is not broad and general but is a highly specific solution to a particular set of problems, is not invalid for obviousness. It may be true that the relevant art is not highly sophisticated. The invention itself is not very sweeping or impressive. It may likewise be true that the main problem involved, which is that prior bases were too big, is not difficult to apprehend. And we may agree that if Sterner had simply written a patent that claimed any and all bases that solved this problem by making the base smaller, that patent would be invalid for obviousness. The relevant fact, however, is that the patentee has specified the solution in detail rather than merely stating that the base should be made smaller. In doing so, he was required along the way to solve some technical problems whose solution would probably not be obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art. For example, the base plate is a flat plane and the pole intersects it perpendicularly at the point of joinder. The Calso base has no such plate; the sides of its pyramidal pedestal join the pole at an angle. The flat planar base apparently makes for a lower profile, less weight, less bulk, and greater strength. We cannot say that this is an obvious way to make a successful base. Also, rather than being connected to the ground on all four sides, the patent has supporting knobs on the side opposite the hinged edge, and a skirt hangs down over the opening between the flat plate and the foundation. This design preserves strength and simplicity without bulk, and we are told by the patentee, with the approval of the Patent Office behind him, that it also allows easy access to the electrical components and provides space for ventilation. All components of the base are coordinated with all other elements to produce these synergistic results. The essential characteristic of the patent is that all elements are specifically described, and coverage can be narrowly confined to the device the patentee actually invented. The patent therefore describes a unique, nonobvious solution to a problem rather than a general idea, which might well be nonpatentable on obviousness grounds. 14 Of course, a necessary concomitant of the construction we have followed in order to hold the patent valid is that the claims do not cover any invention other than the narrow one they specifically describe. The patent cannot cover all small lamp-post bases, or all lamp-post bases that locate the electrical components in the pole, or all lamp-post bases that avoid the disadvantages of the Calso base. It covers only those bases that solve the relevant problems in the way it describes, containing all elements it describes, arranged in the way it describes. Thus the construction we have been required to place upon the patent intimately affects the issue of infringement. Since we have thus disposed of the issue of validity, we now pass on to consider whether the patent is infringed.