72 F. 666 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut | 1896
Upon,all the evidence, I find the following facts:
The defendant, since the execution of said agreement, has manufactured and sold a certain style of faucets, under the name “Andrews Faucet,” for which it has regularly accounted to the plaintiff, and on
“A faucet consisting of a body, A, having- the passage, a, valve seat, aq lateral aperture, a2, the screw, B, having file square projection, b, the packing disk, (J, and screw, T), substantially as herein shown and described.”
This was rejected on references to patents No. 183,445, granted to W. & R. Bentley October 17, 1876, and No. 189,760, granted to P. Lyons April 17,1877. Each of these; patents shows a lateral orifice. Thereupon said claim was amended so as to read as follows:
“The combination of internally threaded, 1,-shaped body, A, having valve-seat, a, and oblong aperture, a2, the screw, B, having the projection, b, and the elastic packing secured to screw, B, as and for the purpose specified.”
And upon this claim said patent was granted.
The general features of this construction were old. The Fenn faucet, for example, which is manufactured by defendant, and which has been on the market for more than 20 years, has the ordinary tapered body, and the internally threaded body, and screw provided with a handle, the valve seat and packing, and a nozzle or spout. It does not have the oblong lateral orifice, or the L-shaped body, of the Andrews patent. Other prior constructions show the elements of the Andrews combination in connection with other elements which altogether make a more elaborate and more costly faucet. Andrews dispensed with said other elements, substituted said lateral aperture for the spout, and thereby made the simpler and cheaper device to which he finally limited himself by the above claim. This combination consists of “the nozzleless, L-shaped body, with the open and
By the contract to pay for faucets containing the patented improvement, the defendant agreed to pay for the faucets made by it, which, by reason of the omission of such unnecessary details of construction as the Adams patent dispensed with, were of a simpler and less expensive construction, such as the Andrews patent sought to secure. The “sáíety” and “compression” faucets do not differ from the prior art in these respects. They do not contain the patented improvements of Andrews, which consisted in a combination comprising the nozzleless, L-shaped body, with open, projecting screw plug, and oblong lateral orifice, specifically claimed by Andrews. As already stated, they differed from the Andrews faucet made by defendant in having a top piece screwed onto the body of the faucet, which covered the screw piece so that it could only be reached by a lever, and was not accessible to the hand. As to the so-called “Andrews Faucets,” I hold, as matter of law, that defendant, having stamped said faucets with the Andrews patent, and having accounted and paid for the same, is estopped to deny that they do not contain the patented improvement of Andrews. I further hold, as a matter of law, that the defendant is not estopped to deny that the “safety” and “compression” faucets do not contain the patented improvement, because similar faucets had been manufactured and sold by it for more than 20' years; because said faucets do not have the L-shaped body, the oblong lateral aperture, or the handle or thumbpiece of the Andrews patent; because the defendant neither sold, stamped, nor represented them as containing the patented improvement; and because it does not appear either that, by any act or omission on the part of the defendant, plaintiff was led to believe that said faucets were within the patent, or that the defendant represented them as such, or that the position of the plaintiff was in any way altered to his prejudice by any representations, acts, or omissions on the part of defendant; and, furthermore, because there is no evidence to contradict the evidence of the expert for defendant that said “safety” and “compression”