Court Opinion

ID: 9642000
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:45:25.207099+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:41.805526
License: Public Domain

McDERMOTT, Circuit Judge
(dissenting in part).
■. I eannot agree with the conclusions reached by my associates as to the Godbold and Fletcher patent. I agree with the principles of law stated by Judge COTTERAL, but I cannot agree as to the facts. I also agree with Judge COTTERAL that an isolated answer of the inventor while on the witness stand, which was emphasized by the trial court in a colloquial way, is not entitled to emphasis. However, I put little emphasis on the colloquy itself, as I do not understand that a trial court’s remarks impair the force of the general findings of its decree. 'But the record is here, and without reference to the weight to be given the findings of a Chancellor, I think the patent has been anticipated, involves no inventive genius, and has not been infringed.
I agree that a patent should not be held invalid unless the proof of anticipation is clear and convincing. There was some oral evidence of unit disassembly prior to the patent in suit, but standing alone, I do not think it measures up to the standard. But it has some weight when considered with the record evidence to which I now refer.
There are many undisputed facts, and one in particular in dispute. The undisputed facts are that for many years prior to the patent in suit, the cutter-cone had been screwed onto the retaining ring, and had been held in place by a set-serew. The cutter and the ring rotated freely about the bushing. The bushing had always been dismounted by inserting a bar through a hole in the ring into a hole in the bushing. The holes in the ring and bushing had always existed for the particular purpose of assembly and disassembly. They had always been aligned vertically, else the bar could not have penetrated both. They never were circum-ferentially aligned, and are not now, for the ring rotates about the bushing. The 1910 patent to Hughes, the-blue-prints, all the cat-alogues, the photographs, and every witness for both parties disclose this. Furthermore, the mechanics of the device demand it. We start then with holes in the ring and the bushing, aligned to receive a bar or other tool for assembly and disassembly.
It is likewise undisputed that for many years prior to the patent in suit there has been a hole in the face of the cutter, which was used for the set-screw. The plaintiff’s witnesses, the catalogues, the photographs and the blue-prints disclose this hole. Again *495the mechanics demand it, for a sot-screw could not function without a hole in the cutter.
We have then, without dispute, aligned holes in the ring and bushing; and a hole in the cutter. The briefs of the plaintiff assure us that “the essence of this invention consists in providing purposely and permanently aligned holes in retaining ring and cutter.” If the record evidence discloses such alignment prior to the patent in suit, there is an anticipation, for I am sure my associates would agree that if such alignment is disclosed, plaintiff cannot patent an additional function thereof, such as using the aligned holes for a crowrbar instead of a set-screw.
Does the record disclose that the holes in the cutter and the ring had ever been aligned f A catalogue of Sharp & Hughes, a partnership predecessor of plaintiff, issued prior to 1912, carried a diagram of the assembly, showing a set-screw penetrating the ring, and the legend, “Set screw for locking retaining ring.” The instructions, contained in the same catalogue, read:
“Care should be taken to get little hole in edge of Cone opposite hole in retaining collar, so Set-screw will enter it freely and its head go at least 1-1G inch below surface.”
Later the catalogue was revised by the plaintiff, still long prior to the patent in suit. Most of the earlier' catalogue was carried over into the revision, line for line and word for word. Where changes occur, they must have been made with deliberation and for a purpose. The diagram of the assembly was changed to show the set-screw bearing against, but not appreciably penetrating, the ring. Moreover the legend was changed, and for the first time a “fiat” on the retaining ring appears. The later legend reads, “Screw set screw against flat on retaining ring using special wrench furnished with each bit.” Note the difference in the legends. But even more striking is the change in the printed instructions. The later catalogue drops all reference to “hole in retaining collar” and to the depth of penetration. Instead, it reads:
“Care should be taken to get little hole in edge of Cone opposite flat place on retaining ring, so Set-screw will hold.”
To me, these catalogues incontrovertibly show that originally the get-screw had entered the hole in the retaining ring, just as the earlier catalogue says and shows; that later, they changed the construction so the set-screw would bear against a flat space, just as the later catalogue says and shows. This was probably done to remove the danger of the set-screw working against the bushing, or the expense of constructing a stop on the set-screw. But whatever the reason, I cannot charge these clear and deliberate changes in the catalogues to mere inadvertence ; nor can I say that when they said “hole” they meant “counter-sunk recess or depression,” as the majority opinion says, for those words describe a “flat” and not a “hole.”
It goes without saying that if th.e setscrew was originally designed to flt into the “hole in retaining collar,” as the catalogue says, the two holes must have been aligned. The only question is whether it ever did flt into the hole. The catalogue, carefully prepared) says it did; it was changed so that the set-screw should no Iqnger enter that hole, but should bear against a flat place. I do not think the change “corrective”; I think it was deliberate, and indicates a change in construction to any mechanic. We must either say that the later catalogue disclosed the same construction as the earlier one, or there has been an anticipation. I think there was an anticipation.
Nor do I think there was invention. The plaintiff’s only claim to invention is the vertical and circumferential alignment of two holes; already there was vertical alignment of the holes in the ring and bushing; on plaintiff’s theory, there had always been both vertical and circumferential alignment between the hole in the cutter and the flat on the ring. So all plaintiff can claim is that he pushed an existing alignment of two holes to include a third; or substituted an existing vertical and circumferential alignment with a “flat” to an exactly similar alignment with an existing hole. I cannot see where that involves genius within the definition of this court that “That which would be obvious to á mechanic, acquainted with the art, is not patentable. Gates Iron Works v. Overland Gold Min. Co. (C. C. A. 8) 147 F. 700, 702, 703.” Linville v. Milberger (C. C. A.) 34 F.(2d) 386, 388. This court held in that case.that putting on a third lever, where two already existed, was not patentable. But all that was done here, on plaintiff’s own claim, was to align a third hole with two already aligned. Personally, I cannot see where it involves even mechanical skill. If alignment of a third hole involves inventive genius, I cannot see why the plaintiff may not, when the present patent has expired, insert a shim or washer between the bushing and ring, put a hole therein, align this fourth hole with the three *496already aligned, patent the additional alignment, and extend its monopoly ad infinitum. Counsel ask, Why was it not done before? Many answers suggest themselves, one of which is that a prudent manufacturer, protected by a patent as was true here, would prefer to let the operator assemble rather than assume all the risk of unsatisfactory results from a device already assembled. When the old patent expired, this device was resorted to in order to extend the term of the patent. Business .success is little argument where, by virtue of a patent monopoly, the plaintiff controlled the field for seventeen years.
Nor do I think there'was infringement. Plaintiff claims that his invention was in the alignment of holes in the cutter and ring. But defendant uses no ring; there is no hole in the non-existent ring, and hence no alignment. To say there is infringement is to give the plaintiff a monopoly for seventeen years on any arrangement for a unit assembly of a rotary drill, an important factor in the drilling of oil wells,-and one where plaintiff has already enjoyed á monopoly for the statutory period.
For these reasons T think the decree of the lower court should be affirmed in its entirety.