243 F. 575 | 3rd Cir. | 1917
This is a bill charging the defendant witli infringement of .Betters Patent No. 763,274, issued June 21, 1904, to Clair Foster, and assigned to the plaintiff. At, the opening of the hearing the defendant moved to dismiss the cause on hill and answer, upon the ground that the patent is void on its face. The District Court granted the motion a.nd dismissed the bill without an opinion. The plaintiff brings this appeal, specifying error to the court, (1) in holding the claims of the patent invalid, and (2) in so holding upon the face of the patent and without taking proof.
This is very considerable power, hence courts of this circuit have been careful to heed the admonition, that in its exercise a court should declare a patent invalid upon its face only where the matter is free from doubt and where invalidity so clearly appears that no testimony can change its legal aspect. Wills v. Scranton Cold Storage and Warehouse Co., supra; Hogan v. Westmoreland Specialty Co., supra.
We therefore approached the consideration in this case with appropriate caution; yet we are forced to say, that a careful study of the pleadings and elaborate briefs does not alter the conviction reached upon first view that the patent is one, which, failing even to suggest invention, shows invalidity on its face.
The decree below is affirmed.