Court Opinion

ID: 9450524
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:51:00.672392+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:21.970689
License: Public Domain

SWYGERT, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Reluctantly, I must disagree with Judge- Kiley’s opinion. I think that the district court properly applied the doctrine of file wrapper estoppel in denying infringement.
The district judge made extensive findings about the prior art and also about the history of the prosecution of the Chernivsky patent.1 In addition to these *592findings, the file wrapper indicates that the patentee’s first ten claims were rejected because they were anticipated by the Ouellette patent No. 2,324,421 granted July 13, 1943, the Barker patent No. 2,567,418 granted September 11, 1951, and the Brown patent No. 619,027 granted March 2,1959 (Great Britain). Twice Chernivsky attempted to have these claims allowed after amendment and twice the examiner rejected the amended claims because of the prior art. Finally, Chernivsky withdrew the original claims and substituted new claims that eventually became patent claims 1, 2, and 3.
In filing the new claims Chernivsky wrote the patent office in pertinent part:
“This application has been amended as a result of a conference courteously granted by the Assistant and Chief Examiners in charge of the application at which it was pointed out that the present invention differs entirely from the references of record in providing a wire base and a rear back portion in which the extremities of the ends of the base are sprung out of line with the ends of the back which are adapted to be engaged thereby, the corresponding ends of the back being provided with sleeves projecting beyond the ends into which the bent ends of the base may be sprung, thereby engaging and holding connection with the back more firmly, providing greater frictional engagement and fitting tightly together but allowing them to be slipped into and out of engagement with each other when desired.”
Thus, Chernivsky narrowed his claims to a frictional locking feature. That this feature was the inventive distinction of his structure is also indicated by the claims themselves. All three are identical except for a different description in the wording of the frictional locking feature.
During the course of his decision, the district judge said:
“The file wrapper history plainly reveals that defendant gave a limited construction to his claims in order to obtain his patent.
“An examination of the file wrapper leaves no doubt that this patent was allowed only after defendant gave a very narrow scope to its claims. It is apparent from the successive rejections that without the frictional locking feature involving the flared stubs of the base member there was no invention.
“There is but one inference which can be reasonably drawn from the events preceding the issuance of the *593patent in suit and it is that defendant was but a slight improver in a crowded field where many others had sown. It is evident that broader interpretation of his claims would render them invalid on the prior art.
“The Court is convinced that the patent is not infringed by the plaintiff’s device. This conclusion is based upon the doctrine that a patentee who is only a narrow improver, as is the case with the instant patent, has a monopoly restricted to that narrow impovement.
“Having narrowed the scope of his claims in order to obtain the patent, he [defendant] made his precise form a material element of his invention and cannot expand the scope of his claims by construction or resort to the doctrine of equivalents. * * *
“Plaintiff’s baby support does not embody the frictional locking feature so vital to defendant’s patent. It follows that “where a patent depends for its novelty over the prior art upon a single limited feature of construction, the claims cannot be expanded by any doctrine of equivalents to cover a device which lacks that single essential feature.” (Standard Mirror Co. v. H. W. Brown, Inc., 113 F.2d 379 (7th Cir. 1940)).
In discussing what it considers to be “the root of the district court’s error,” the majority says that the district judge failed to apply “the well-established principle that a combination of old elements in a manner that is unobvious to one skilled in the trade and which produces a new and useful result may be patented.” I do not disagree with this principle as enunciated. I think, however, that its application here is improper. Although a novel combination of old elements “may” constitute invention, the Chernivsky patent was neither claimed nor granted on that basis. Thus, whether or not Chernivsky could have been granted a patent on that basis is irrelevant. The inventive-level characteristic of his structure resided solely in the frictional locking feature. The patent was granted only after the applicant had thus limited his claims. To construe the patent as this court now does is, in effect, to give Chernivsky a new patent — broader than the one which was granted to him.
I would adopt the reasoning of the district court and affirm the judgment.

. Findings pertinent to these matters include the following:
Infant seating devices of the type involved in this action are disclosed in Pribil patent No. 2,460,308 granted- February 1, 1949, and in the Blackledge patent No. 704,774 granted July 15, 1902.
The Pribil patent discloses a baby support having a resilient frame structure which provides a flexible support. It is similar in construction and function to the baby seat of the Chernivsky patent in suit. It differs therefrom in that the backrest and base parts are not detachable, one from the other.
The Blackledge patent discloses a resilient baby support having a backrest which is detachably connected to a base member; it does not employ plug and tubular socket means for detachably connecting the frame members together.
The prior patent art contains examples of seating devices constituted by separable parts having their end portions connected together by plug and tubular socket means. The Examiner rejected original claims 1 through 10 on the grounds that no invention is involved in providing a backrest having hollow extremities in which fit the ends of a separable base in view of Brown v. Barker, Fig. 5. Plaintiff acceded to this contention by cancelling those claims.
The concept of a sleeve connection between mating extremities of members of a supporting device, wherein the members have to be sprung together before effecting an interfitting relationship is old in the art, as shown in the Watrous patent.
The connecting means between the base and backrest frames of the Chernivsky patent are characterized by an outward bend or flaring of the extremities of the base frame so that they are not in straight alignment with the tubular socket ends of the backrest frame when their extremities initially spring together. Consequently the said end portions do not slip freely and easily into interfitting relationship when merely sprung together. On the contrary the mating end portions, disposed' at an angle one to the other, must be additionally stressed to bring them into straight alignment, Before they can be fitted together.
*592The applicant described this special characteristic in distinguishing from the prior art saying: “However, in the present invention, the applicant is covering an entirely different invention, namely, a provision of base and backrest parts having extremities which are secured together but in which the respective ends are neither parallel nor do they extend in the same direction, but the ends of one part must be sprung in order to engage with a hollow sleeve or with the ends of the other part to which they are connected. This construction is planned and deliberate since it results in an increased frictional contact between the parts and once the ends are sprung to engage with the other corresponding ends, it is difficult to disengage them without a reversal of the springing and sliding operation in connecting them.”
In a later amendment defendant Chernivsky reiterated the distinguishing characteristic aforesaid and expressly disclaimed a construction wherein the parts may be simply sprung together and slid into interfitting relationship, as disclosed in the prior art Watrous patent, * * * and in the Barker patent, Fig. 5. The applicant Chernivsky expressly disclaimed such old and well-known sleeve connections stating: “The applicant is not attempting to claim broadly any arm or other member which may be sprung into engagement with another. * * * ”
The plaintiff’s device * * * is so constructed that when the extremities of the backrest and base members are brought into mutual registration the end portions are substantially in straight alignment so that they slip easily together, and without requiring an additional force to align the end portions. In this respect plaintiff’s device accords with the disclosure of the prior art Watrous patent.