Opinion ID: 1494578
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Lack of Invention and Anticipation.

Text: Invention is a question of fact and the special master and District Judge found as a fact that there was invention and no anticipation. The appellants rely for anticipation upon several patents (British patents Nos. 4481 and 11,877, both issued in 1906; U.S. patent No. 1,299,385 to Rogers and a Russian patent to Berkgan) all of which were considered and rejected by the trial court as not anticipating Barnickel's invention. The British patent No. 4481 to Lanza and Garnna of Italy, was for the process for extracting olein and stearin from fatty acids, utilizing sulpho-oleic acid for the separation of oleic acid from the solid fatty acid, and has no application to the problem of separating two liquids bound together in one emulsion. The British patent No. 11,877 to Michele Lanza states that the invention has for its object a filtering apparatus for separating the substances constituting an emulsion when one of the substances consists of solid matter in a fine state of subdivision. Such a condition the evidence shows is not an emulsion but a suspension. The fact that sulfo-oleic acid (a sulfo-fatty acid) is used in the process is immaterial. The appellants insist that this patent anticipates that of Barnickel stating One, reading that sulfo-oleic acid (a sulfo-fatty acid) would separate the constituents of an emulsion, would immediately turn to sulfo-oleic acid as a means of separating a crude oil emulsion. There is nothing in the patent or in the evidence to suggest that the disclosures of these British patents are applicable to the stable emulsions of petroleum and water. The Russian patent to Berkgan was granted April 30, 1914. This patent dealt with the problem of breaking the stable emulsions of petroleum and water by the application of naphthenic acids derived from mineral oil and sulphuric acid. It is claimed by appellants that these naphthenic acids contain sulfo-acid derivatives, and consequently anticipate the invention of Barnickel. The Rogers' patent No. 1,299,385, supra, cited by appellants, as anticipating Barnickel also used mineral oil for the production of the agent used in breaking the emulsion. Such oils are not fatty acids, and the agent derived therefrom for treating petroleum oil emulsions is not a sulfo-fatty acid nor a salt or ester thereof. We agree with the trial court that these patents do not anticipate the invention. The principle stated in Remington Rand Business Service, Inc. v. Acme Card System, 4 Cir., 71 F.2d 628, 634, 635, that for a prior patent to anticipate it is sufficient that it suggests to one interested in the problem the means of solving it, is invoked by appellants, but has no application here.