47 F. 59 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of New Jersey | 1891
This matter comes before the court upon demurrer to the bill of complaint. The bill is in the usual form of bills of complaint, seeking injunction and relief upon an alleged infringement of letters patent. It sets forth that in September, 1886, one William Painter, of Baltimore, Md., being the original and first inventor of a certain new and useful improvement in bottle stoppers, which had not been known or used by others in this country, and had not been in public use for more than two years prior to the application for letters {latent, was granted letters patent bearing date the said --day of September, 1885, and numbered 327,099. That on October 21,1890, the said William Painter, having invented another new and useful improvement in bottle stoppers, not before known or used in this country, was granted therefor letters patent bearing the said date, and numbered 488,709. That these letters patent, by certain indentures of assignment, have been granted, assigned, and transferred to the complainant, who is now the sole and exclusive owner thereof. That the inventions and improvements described and claimed in said respective letters patent were and are capable of joint use, and were and are so conjointly used, and are intended so to be; and that the said inventions and improvements, and each of them, are designed and intended to be used together and in combination and connection with bottles or similar vessels. That said improvements and inventions are of great pecuniary value to the complainant; are of great benefit and advantage to the public; and that the public has generally acknowledged and acquiesced in the rights of the complainant under said letters patent.
But it is claimed by the defendant that, notwithstanding the effect of the demurrer upon the averments of the bill, the invention alleged to be protected by the letters patent of October, 1890, is wholly wanting in patentable novelty, and that such defect appears from the very letters patent themselves, or by reason of other matters, of which the court will take judicial notice. In other words, although the defendant admits the usefulness and novelty of the invention, yet the insistment is that such usefulness and such novelty- are really negatived by the letters patent in question, or by matters of common knowledge. Notwithstanding this incongruity resulting from the contradiction of the pleading by.the con
“It is sometimes desirable to remove the disk stopper from the bottle without the use of a tool. In such cases 1 form the disk witli a lug or ear. I may also attach to the disk an eye of wire, like the shank of a button, or a string, cord, or other device to facilitate its removal.”
This last described device — the eye of wire, like the shank of a button, or string or cord, or other device to facilitate removal — the defendant declares describes exactly, or, if not with exactness, certainly substantially, the very device for which the last letters patent were granted. And it is insisted that things described, but not claimed, in a patent, cannot
Bo far as the devices protected by the letters patent are concerned, and claimed to be anticipatory, it is only necessary to remark that upon this argument no notice can be taken of them. The only way by which knowledge of them or of the letters patent protecting them can be brought to the court is by due and legal proof. It has never been supposed that letters patent could be taken judicial notice of by courts. There is nothing in their character nor their contents to so dignify them. They are simply contracts reduced to writing, capable of being recorded, and of being proved in a particular way. A court is no more bound to take notice of their contents or their existence than it is bound to notice a deed of conveyance, or a mechanic’s lien unproved. The demurrer is overruled.