Court Opinion

ID: 9452562
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:44:43.694772+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:16.278849
License: Public Domain

WORLEY, Chief Judge
(dissenting).
It is inconceivable that Congress could possibly have intended Sec. 171, in letter or spirit, to allow an individual to remove from the public domain and monopolize mere sprays of water.1 To do so, one must necessarily rely on strained semantics at the expense of common sense. The instant sprays, so evanescent and fugitive in nature, presumably subject to the whims of wind and weather, incapable of existing in and of themselves, are merely the effect flowing from articles of manufacture, but certainly are no more articles of manufacture per se than are the vapor trails of jets, wakes of ships or steam from engines.
It appears that appellant presently enjoys patent protection on the mechanical elements of the fountains, but apparently not satisfied with that, now seeks to monopolize certain configurations of moving water, whether produced by a garden hose or otherwise. It is not difficult to imagine the potential harassment that could result from such a monopoly.
I would affirm.

. Appellant concedes that
Each application here under consideration is a design formed by continually moving droplets of water in a fountain. The design is formed by the droplets as they move, first upwardly, then arcing over and finally falling downwardly in a very special form, thereby to constitute an invariable configuration and visual appearance. Although there is a spray head and a catch basin, these mechanical appurtenances do not form a part of the design. (Emphasis supplied.)