231 F. 174 | N.D.N.Y. | 1916
“11. In a cow-milking apparatus, a milk chamber having a valveless inlet, means for exhausting air from the chamber and a substantially air-tight valved outlet closed by gravity and the exhaust of air from said chamber.
“12. In a cow-milking apparatus, a milk chamber having a valveless milk inlet, an air exhaust connection, a milk outlet and an outlet valve positioned outside said chamber and closed by gravity and the exhaust of air from said chamber.
“13. In a cow-milking apparatus, a milk chamber having a valveless milk inlet, an air exhaust connection, a milk outlet, a valve for said outlet, and means located outside the milk chamber for supporting said valve.
“14. In a cow-milking apparatus, a milk chamber having a valveless milk inlet, an air exhaust connection, a milk outlet, a valve for said outlet, said valve positioned outside the milk chamber, and means located outside the milk chamber for supporting said valve.
“15. In a cow-milking apparatus, a milk chamber having a valveless milk inlet, an air exhaust connection, a milk outlet, a valve for said outlet, said valve positioned outside the milk chamber; and means located outside the milk chamber for supporting said valve In position to he brought into airtight relation with the milk outlet by the exhaust of air from said chamber.
“16. In a cow-milking apparatus, a milk chamber having a milk inlet in substantially continuous communication with said chamber during the milking operation, a milk outlet and a valve for said outlet, said valve supported by means located entirely outside the milk chamber.
“17. In a cow-milking apparatus, a milk chamber having a milk inlet, an air exhaust connection,. a milk outlet, a valve for said outlet, said valve supported by means located outside the milk chamber and adapted to discharge milk into a receptacle at substantially normal atmospheric pressure.
“18. In a cow-milking apparatus, a tubular member constituting a milk chamber and formed of two separate parts removably connected together, said parts having their adjacent edge portions adapted to be spaced apart, milk inlet and air exhaust connections with said chamber, and a valved outlet for said chamber.
“19. In a cow-milking apparatus, a milk chamber comprising two separate removably connected members having parts adapted to be normally spaced for receiving between them the cover of a milk receptacle, a milk inlet, an air exhaust connection, and a valved outlet.
“20. In a cow-milking apparatus, a milk chamber formed of a tubular body section and a cap removably connected thereto, a milk inlet and an air exhaust in connection with the cap, a milk outlet in connection with the body portion, a valve for said outlet, said valve located outside said chamber and adapted to be brought into substantially air-tight relation with said outlet by the exhaust of air from said chamber.
“21. In a cow-milking apparatus, a milk chamber having a valveless milk inlet, a valveless unobstructed air exit, and a valved outlet for the milk.”
Claims 12 to 21 are new claims not found in the original patent, and claim 11 differs somewhat from claim 11 of the original patent. The patent was issued to Arthur V. Hinman and Ralph D. Hinman, complainants herein. The complainant Hinman Milking Machine Company is a licensee of the patentees. The defenses are:
*176 “First. The claims are either wholly or substantially anticipated by the prior art patents.
“Second. Inasmuch as the relied-upon claims define nothing more than old and well-known details, shown to have been old and Well known by many pri- or patents, applied to the device shown in plaintiff’s prior patent No. 907,236 (Ex. 2), several thousand of which went into successful use, said claims do not define a patentable invention.
“Third. The relied-upon claims "added by reissue are for a different invention from that intended to be claimed by the original patent, and therefore void under the law.
“Fourth. The original patent was not inoperative or invalid, and there being no lawful ground for reissue, the reissue is void.
“Fifth. Defendant’s device does not infringe.”
The patentees say in their specifications:
“This invention- relates to improvements in .vacuum cow-milking machines of the valved milk chamber type, its object being to improve and simplify their construction and to provide an exceedingly simple, readily operated, easily cleaned, noiseless and highly efficient apparatus of that class for milking one cow, or a number of cows simultaneously.
“At present in machines of this type there is no way of automatically controlling the vacuum, so that with each pulsation of the piston of the air pump the entire contents of the milk chamber are emptied; and there is- no way to prevent the milk from entering at some point the center of the milk chamber during the milking stroke of the pump; and no way of preventing a portion of the milk being drawn from the milk chamber into the flexible tube connected with the pump, and even into the pump itself.
“Our invention is mainly designed to overcome these defects by providing an improved and simpler apparatus and accessories. * * *
‘‘More especially the invention resides in the provision of a cow-milking apparatus, in which the hose leading from the suction pump is connected by means of a nipple to a milk chamber capable of being closed airtight, and opened by an automatic valve at its lower end, which valve is closed by gravity and atmospheric pressure during the out stroke of the pump piston, and which is opened during the in stroke of the pump piston by the weight and pressure of the milk against it as it is discharged from the milk chamber, the milk having previously been drawn thereinto upon the out stroke of said pump piston; thus permitting the apparatus to be attached to the cover and used in connection with any receptacle of ordinary construction, without the necessity of providing a special air-tight covering for the same.
“The milk chamber may consist of two parts, a head or perpendicular part, and a body or curved part, easily joined together so as to form a unitary chamber, and easily separated for the purpose of cleaning, said parts having laterally projecting spaced flanges adapted to receive between them a portion of a milk pail cover. The body of the milk chamber may consist o'f two or more curved tubular parts, with a common upper part capable of being attached to the lower part of the head, and with two or more lower openings closed by automatic valves, instead of consisting of one curved part with one valve, the several valves being opened by the pressure and weight of the out-flowing milk, and closed by their own weight and by atmospheric pressure.”
This invention relates to that class of milking- machines spoken of as the “valve chamber type.” It has a small tubular valved milk chamber adapted to be associated with an ordinary pail and to remain in a stationary condition while the milking operation goes on. In this chamber the vacuum is created for drawing the milk from the cow, and thus rendering unnecessary the use of a specially constructed vacuum pail and a specially pulsating apparatus such as was found in the milking machines commercially known before the Hinman invention and in which the vacuum is created in the milk pail itself.
The milk chamber comprises a tubular structure closed at its upper end and open at its lower end to permit the discharge of the milk therefrom. This lower open end is provided with a normally closed valve positioned outside the milk chamber and is supported by means outside the milk chamber, and as a result the milk chamber is in no way obstructed and all this tends to a sanitary condition. This valve closing the lower end of the milk chamber is closed normally by gravity. The upper closed end of this milk chamber has a tubular air exhaust nipple for connection with a suitable air exhausting pump which is at all times in connection with the chamber as the nipple is unobstructed by-valves or other parts. The upper portion of the chamber is provided, also, with a tubular milk inlet nipple adapted to be connected by means of a flexible hose to teat cups, which are at all times in continuous communication with the milk chamber, as the milk inlet nipple is entirely unobstructed by valves or moving parts, and in effect the pump is at all times in continuous communication with the teat cups. This milk chamber is adapted to be placed in position in a stationary manner upon a receptacle for receiving the milk. The outlet valve automatically operates, and the construction and arrangement is such that the movement of the cow will not throw the milk into the air exhaust connection as the pump had done in prior devices.
In the reissued letters patent, there is a new sheet of drawings, viz., sheet 1, and this was inserted for the purpose of showing the apparatus set up and ready for use, and is illustrative merely, and shows the valve chamber assembled in operative position with a pump supported upon stanchions and with suitable hose and teat cups. This
In the specifications of the reissued letters patent will be found the following, viz.:
“The upper end of G is provided with a laterally and circumferentially extending flange e spaced in the assembled structure a sufficient distance from the flange d to receive between them a portion of a milk pail cover f. In the operation of assembling the device, the upper end of the part O is thrust through an opening in the pail cover until the flange e contacts with the cover. The cap B is then screwed upon the body' 0 until the flange d comes in contact with the pail cover, at which point the parts B and 0 are brought into such relative position as to form a smooth interior milk spreading surface.”
This language is not found in the specifications of the original letters patent, but in the .file wrapper of the original patent we do find the following:
“The lower end of the head provided with a thread and outside shoulder to engage the upper end of the body, the upper end of the body provided with a thread and outside shoulder to engage the lower end of the head, so that, when joined, the interior surface of the head and body form one continuous interior surface. * * •
“In a cow-milking apparatus, the combination of an air pump, a series of teat cups, a curved elbow shaped cylinder A composed of two parts, a cylindrical head B and a curved cylindrical body G easily joined together by screw threads.”
This part of the device or structure is therefore made more specific and definite, and I think was allowable in. view of the fact that there are no intervening rights. There was put in evidence a rough outline drawing of the device made by Mr. E. J. Brown, of Oneida, at the request of the patentees. Mr. Brown was unskilled in patent drawings or specifications, and he also prepared a specification describing the drawing which he had made. The drawings did not coincide with the specification, but they were forwarded to the Patent Office and received June 24, 1912. The Patent Office declined to file the application, inasmuch as tire drawing, was informal and irregular. The Patent Office made a drawing from the specification and drawing prepared by Mr. Brown as it was understood at the Patent Office, and this drawing remained in the application for nearly a year and a half, when it was discovered by the applicants for the patent that the drawing was not complete and not an exact disclosure of their invention, whereupon they called upon the Patent Office to correct the drawing to agree with their original specification and claims. The applicants forwarded to the Patent Office a photograph of what is known as Exhibit 35, which was prepared by the applicants themselves and given to or shown to Mr. Brown. The Patent Office then proceeded to correct the drawing in accordance with the original specification and claims
It seems to this court clear that the reissue application was filed for the purpose of obtaining the actual invention made by the Hinmans and disclosed in Exhibit 35, and does not go beyond it or beyond the drawings of the original patent. Clearly, there was no unreasonable delay on the part of the patentees in their effort to bring order out of this confusion and make the application, specifications, and drawings conform to the actual invention and disclosure made. It was no fault of the patentees that Mr. Brown was not skilled in making patent drawings or framing specifications and claims, and they ought not to be deprived of the benefit of their actual invention fairly disclosed and presented to the Patent Office as long as there are no intervening rights demanding protection. It is, of course, true and settled law that the reissued letters patent must be for the same invention disclosed in the original application. This does not mean that the specifications must read the same, or that the claims must be identical. If this w’ere true, there would be no object in procuring a reissue.
I am led to the conclusion that the reissued letters patent have not been unduly expanded, and that same are valid.
On the cpiestion of infringement, it seems clear that the defendant’s device infringes. It embodies a valveless inlet and a valveless unobstructed air exit, and, in fact, is a substantial copy or reproduction of the complainants’ device. It differs in the exhaust valve, in that there is substituted a counterweighted valve which in the judgment of this court is the equivalent of that of complainants’ device. There is nothing in the specifications or claims of the reissued letters patent which confines the complainants to the specific valve shown. In both
Much has been said regarding claim 11 of the original patent and claim 11 of the reissue. Claim 11 of the original patent reads as follows :
“In a milking apparatus a milk chamber having a valveless inlet and a substantially air-tight valved outlet closed by gravity, and means for exhausting the air from said chamber.”
The claim will mean the same and be for the same combination if we make it read:
“In a milking apparatus a milk chamber having a valveless inlet and means for exhausting the air from said chamber and a substantially air-tight valved outlet closed by gravity.”
Claim 11 of the reissue reads as follows:
“In a cow-milking apparatus, a milk chamber having a valveless inlet, means for exhausting air from the chamber and a substantially air-tight valved outlet closed by gravity and the exhaust of air from said chamber.”
It is contended, on the one hand, that this is an undue expansion of the claim, while, bn the other hand, it is contended that this change is a narrowing in the reissue. ' In the original claim we have “a substantially air-tight valved outlet closed by gravity,” while in the reissue we have in the same claim and combination “a substantially airtight valved outlet closed by gravity and the exhaust of air from said chamber.” In both, this air or valved outlet is closed by gravity; that is, the valve closes and remains closed by gravity. It is held
This court has some doubt of the validity of claim 19 of the reissue, which calls for:
“In a cow-milking apparatus, a milk chamber comprising two separate removably connected members having parts adapted to be normally spaced for receiving between them the cover of a milk receptacle, a milk inlet, an air exhaust connection, and a valved outlet.”
The original patent has no claim which calls for a combination of connected members “having parts adapted to be normally spaced for receiving between them the cover of a milk receptacle.” But I think that the original drawings and specifications show this feature, and that, even if omitted in the claims of the original patent, it was perfectly competent and proper to embrace this feature in the added and amended claims of the reissue.
As to the defense that the claims of the reissued letters patent are wholly or substantially anticipated by the prior art patents and define nothing more than old and well-known details sh-o-wn by many prior patents to have been old and well-known, it is proper to say: This court has been over the prior art with great care and interest. Nothing is found which anticipates or shows want of patentable invention. The commercial success of the complainants’ device shows its superiority. The infringement by defendant, that is, the copy, close imitation, shows merit and is evidence of patentable novelty. Why is it that the defendant so closely imitates and CQpies the complainants’ device? But this is not conclusive. Both complainants and defendant had the right to follow and copy and use and improve upon the prior
I do not regard it necessary to go through and describe the Colvin patent, No. 28,455 or the Shiels patent, No. 513,625, or the Weber patent, No. 680,952, or the Jacques patent, No. 870,785, or the Peik & Lehman patent, No. 995,804, or the Delaney & Holtzbauer patent, No. 1,021,570, or the Roberts patent, No. 1,074,206, or the Uevler patent, No. 1,112,949, or the Hinman patent, No. 907,236, as neither is an anticipation, and, take them altogether with others as showing the prior art, I do not think the ordinary mechanic skilled in the art with those devices before him would have constructed tire device shown in complainants’ patent sued upon. This is the neatest, most operative, and most sanitary of all, and shows a marked and patentable improvement on the prior art. It is to be regretted, of course, that errors were made and crude drawings and specifications submitted in the first instance; but it is apparent that the Patent Office recognized the merit of the Hinmans’ invention and did what it reasonably could to aid in giving to the patentees the benefit of the invention. In my judgment justice requires that this court should refuse to deny relief to the complainants on mere technical grounds which do not go to the real merits of the controversy and which are not fatal as matter of law. Clearly, there was no laches in applying for the reissue, and I therefore hold that the reissued letters patent sued upon were applied for in due time and duly reissued; that it contains no “new matter” within the meaning of the statute and decisions not disclosed in the original patent or application upon which it issued;
The complainants are entitled to a decree accordingly, with costs.