259 F. 275 | 4th Cir. | 1919
Consideration of the claims, infringements, and defenses set up in these appeals involve very fine distinctions of the application of the patent law to bifocal lenses. Study of the record and arguments satisfies us that the District Judge reached just conclusions as to most of the matters in controversy, and no good end would be attained by a statement of our reasons for approving his conclusions. 246 Fed. 450.
“Apparatus for producing bifocal lenses including a rotary holder for the lens crystal, and means for grinding two bifocal surfaces of different dioptrics simultaneously on one face thereof, substantially as set forth.”
The District Court held this claim invalid, because the rotary lens holder is old in the art and the claim was too broad, in that it covered all apparatus which will make the product described, provided only that a rotary lens holder forms a part of them. A claim may be limited by reference to the specifications in the application. Seymour v. Osborne, 11 Wall. 516-547, 20 L. Ed. 33; The Corn-Planter Patent, 23 Wall. 181-218, 23 L. Ed. 161. We think the broad claim is so- limited in this instance by the words “substantially as set forth,” referring to the specifications in the' application which it is conceded describe the apparatus, and that the claim is therefore valid.
Modified.