Court Opinion

ID: 9642509
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 18:01:04.103754+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:50:06.205687
License: Public Domain

BOOTH, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
It is with reluctance and misgiving that I find myself unable to concur in the result reached in the able and exhaustive opinion of the majority of the court. The disagreement, as I view it, is confined solely to the question of evaluating what Mr. Caesar, the patentee of the patent in suit, did in producing his apparatus, the Tropic-Aire heater. In the view of the majority, invention was not involved; to me it seems that it was, and I shall state my position very briefly. Extended argument would serve no useful purpose.
Minimizing to the utmost limit what Mr. Caesar did, and assuming that all that he did was to select from the prior art a compact heating unit, install it in an automobile, and connect it by suitable pipes to the water cooling system of the gasoline engine, yet, I am not prepared to say that the resulting apparatus did not evince invention. It is contended that the bringing together this combination would occur to an ordinary mechanic. The conclusive answer, it'seems to me, *594to this contention, is that it did not occur to any one of the thousands of mechanics in the automobile industry or ' to any one of the thousands of mechanics in the heating industry. It did not occur to any one of the scores of skilled inventors in either of those lines of industry. But it did occur to Mr¿ Caesar.
The Ilg heating unit (Frank patent) had been known and in use since 1919. The Mo-dine Unit heater came into use prior to' 1925. The principal difference between these two units was in the type of radiator core used. The Sturtevant apparatus, which may be placed in the same class, was patented in 1869. As far back as 1915, at least, the problem of heating automobiles satisfactorily had become acute. Various heaters had been devised. A number of different types were in use during the period 1915-1926; among them, the exhaust gas heater, the manifold heater, the forced draft heater. No one of them was satisfactory. The need for a better type was widespread, and growing. Unsuccessful attempts had been made to produce hot water heaters for automobiles. Inventors for years had been and were still at work on the problem.
In 1926, Mr. Caesar made his selection of old elements from the prior art, formed his combination apparatus, and embodied it in the Tropic-Aire heater. The elements were old, but the combination was new. This new heater possessed great utility; it solved the problem which had been long standing. This new heater met with general approval, and achieved a very great commercial success.
The courts have been careful not to give a hard and fast definition of invention. They have, however, indicated a number of elements that enter into the concept. It appears to be conceded that the Tropic-Aire heater discloses all of the elements of invention except one; but it seems to be held that the thought which picked out of the prior art the proper elements to make the combination and which put them together to make the apparatus, was the thought of a mechanic and not the thought of an inventor.
It seems to me that the majority of the court in its careful consideration of the various matters involved has not given sufficient weight to the problem that confronted the men who were seeking a successful heater for automobiles, and to the conditions and limitations which were attached to the problem, among them, the many different models of automobiles, the need for a heater that would suit all models, the limitation of size, the elimination'of the introduction of noxious gases into the automobile. It seems to me further that sufficient weight has not been given to the length of time this problem had existed, notwithstanding the widespread and growing need, and notwithstanding the fact that the problem was being carefully studied by men skilled in the art. Finally, it seems to me that sufficient weight has not been given to the facts that the Tropic-Aire heater solved the problem completely and satisfactorily; that it was enthusiastically received, and has gained great commercial success; and that it has received the homage of numerous imitators, including the HaDees heater, and defendant’s heater, Mephisto.
I do not overlook the fact that the elements of the new heater were all old and found ready at hand, subject to minor changes; but they had been ready at hand for years while the problem remained unsolved. Mr. Caesar picked these elements out, put them together, and solved the problem. Under all the circumstances disclosed, I cannot rid myself of the conviction that his full comprehension of the,problem and his clear perception of what combination of elements would solve it, followed by the embodiment of both ideas in the successful apparatus, involved invention within the true meaning of that term.
An array of authorities might be given in support of the foregoing views. One is sufficient to illustrate my position. In Inland Mfg. Co. v. American Wood Rim Co. (C. C. A.) 14 F.(2d) 657, the court said at page 659:
“It is no argument against invention that the inventor availed himself of all knowledge known to mechanics skilled in the art, nor is it surprising that, when a definite result has been accomplished, the simplicity of the methods by which it is accomplished would seem to be obvious. The line between the skilled mechanic and the ingenuity of the inventor cannot be accurately drawn in any given ease, but where a demand has long existed, and men skilled in the art have sought to meet that demand without success, the argument that the methods employed by the inventor who has solved the problem are so obvious as to involve only mechanical skill, is not entitled to very serious consideration.”
In my opinion the patent should be held valid, and infringed by defendant’s apparatus.