Opinion ID: 1563058
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Did the use of soft rubber lubricated by water involve invention?

Text: It is true that the characteristic of vulcanized rubber has long been known, that the skidding automobile demonstrated the fact that with water lubrication on the highway the rubber of an automobile tire supporting a heaving automobile showed little frictional resistance. The patent office, however, decided that the use of water lubricated soft rubber to support a shaft constitutes invention. The real problem of using soft rubber in the bearing or on a journal results from the intimate contact with the metal which it supports. This contact leaves no space for a lubricant on the surface which supports the weight. Sherwood believed that he could force water between the rubber and the steel and thus make practical application of the desirable qualities of rubber in the structure. We agree with the trial court and with the patent office that this constituted invention and that patent No. 1,416,988 is valid as against the claim of no invention. While it is true that the substitution of one substance for another does not ordinarily constitute invention, we cannot say beyond a reasonable doubt that this use of soft rubber did not constitute invention over the use of hard rubber, as we would be required to do, to declare a patent therefor invalid because anticipated by the patents for hard-rubber water lubricated bearings. We therefore conclude that patent 1,416,988 is valid, and that although disclosed but not claimed by application for patent 1,376,043 copending the patentee was nevertheless entitled to claim the use of soft rubber in his copending application (48 C.J. 48, § 50, and cases cited above on this point); but having claimed the use of rubber in the application for patent 1,416,988 a second patent therefor could not be properly issued and we agree with the appellees and cross-appellants that this later patent, No. 1,510,804, is invalid for want of invention over No. 1,416,988.