14 F. Cas. 1136 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Maryland | 1851
(charging jury). First The first question to - be decided in this ease is, what is the invention claimed by the plaintiff. His claim, as summed up in his specification, is in the following words: “I do not claim the jet-bath, neither do I claim the movable reservoir, both having been used separately before, but I do claim and desire to secure the combination of a movable reservoir with a jet-bath constructed as herein described.’’
The specification, of course, describes the various mechanical contrivances by which the bath is to be raised or lowered, or kept stationary at the height desired by the person taking the bath, and the manner in which the reservoir and jet-pipes are to be arranged, and the machine put in operation. But these form no part of his claim, nor are they patentable. For they are nothing more than the ordinary and familiar mechanical powers which have always been used for similar purposes, and form no part of the combination claimed as new.
The specification, however, leaves it very doubtful whether the plaintiff claims as new the whole machine composed of the movable reservoir and jet-pipes united together, including the movable reservoir, as a part of the machine patented. And if it be so construed as to make the movable .reservoir a part of the combination patented to the plaintiff, the patent is invalid. For it appears that the movable reservoir had been patented some years before the plaintiff’s improvement was made; and that the patentee has conveyed his right to the exclusive privilege in the city of Baltimore to the defendants, who now hold it; and that the plaintiff never has received any license or authority from the patentee or his assigns to make, use or vend the movable reservoir.
And if the patent office has granted to the plaintiff the whole combined machine, including the movable reservoir, it has granted what the law does not authorize, for it had no right to grant to the plaintiff any right in an invention which was then the exclusive property of another. But the claim, as summed up in the specification, is susceptible of another construction, and may be confined to the connection of the movable reservoir with the jet-bath constructed as described in the specification; that is, to the ■connection of the two known improvements in the manner described, so as to make both movable together in combination with each other, moving at the same time and by application of the same force. And as this construction would authorize the patent to issue, if this were a patentable improvement, and the plaintiff the first and original inventor, the court think it ought to be adopted as the true one. And the jury are therefore instructed that the patent covers nothing more than the connection of the reservoir with the jet-bath, constructed in the manner and form therein described.
It remains to inquire whether the plaintiff was the first and original inventor of this improvement, and entitled to its exclusive use.
Second. It is admitted that a shower-bath, with a fixed reservoir and a fixed jet-bath combined and connected with it, and fed by water from the reservoir, was known and in use in the United States before plaintiff’s improvement was made, and also a movable reservoir without a jet-bath combined with it.
If, therefore, the plaintiff’s mode of connecting and combining the jet-bath with the movable reservoir, and supplying the jet with water from the reservoir, is substantially the same with that by which the jet-bath and fixed reservoir were united together in the old improvement, or if a mechanic of ordinary skill and acquainted with such business, with the old improvement before him, could have attached the jet-bath to the movable reservoir in a manner that would produce the same result with that adopted by the plaintiff, then the improvement he claims to have invented is not patentable, and his patent is invalid.
The plaintiff admits,’ in his specification, that his jet-bath is the same with the old improvement, and therefore!, an alteration in the size or arrangement of the pipes, or of the holes, or of the quantity of water discharged, or of the part of the body on which it is discharged, is not a substantial difference from the old jet-bath, and is not covered by the patent. There must be something new in the principle and mode of operation by which the water is supplied to the jets by the movable reservoir in the mode of connection claimed by the plaintiff as his invention.
Third. And if the jury find that tbd plaintiff’s improvement is one of this description, his patent is invalid, although he may not have seen or known of the shower-bath with a fixed reservoir and fixed lateral jets combined with it nor of the movable reservoir, and in fact, have invented the improvement by the efforts of his own genius and studies. In order to entitle him to a patent he must not only be the inventor, but the first invent- or. But the patent is prima facie evidence that the plaintiff was the first inventor of the improvement described in it.
Fourth. But if the jury find that the manner of combining and connecting the jet-bath
Fifth. And if under the foregoing instructions the jury find that the patent is valid, ■and also find that the mode of combining and connecting the jet-bath with the movable reservoir, and supplying the jet with water from the reservoir used in the shower-baths of the defendants, is substantially the same with that described in the plaintiff’s specification, then the defendants have infringed his patent, and plaintiff is entitled to recover the damages he may have sustained by ■such infringement.
Verdict for defendants.