10 Blatchf. 201 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York | 1872
This is a motion for a provisional injunction, to restrain the infringement of reissued letters paterit granted to William C. Hicks, March 1st, 1S70, for an “improvement in breech-loading fire-arms.” The arm proceeded against is one made by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, of New Haven, Connecticut, and is of the same construction, in the particulars involved in this suit, as the arm proceeded against in the suit of Renwick v. Pond [Case No. 11,702], brought on the same patent, and decided by this court, on final hearing. In that suit, the first three claims of the patent were sustained against all defences, and were held to have been infringed by the arm in question. Among those defences, a patent issued to George W. Morse. October 28th, 1856, was set up. The original patent to Hicks, issued March 10th, 1857, was applied for February 20th, 1857, but it was held, on the evidence, that the invention by Hicks dated back to a period shortly after the 14th of August, 1855, and anterior to the date of the invention by Morse. A caveat is now introduced, filed in the patent office, by Morse, on the 24th of August, 1855. Morse testifies, that this caveat was prepared and in existence on or before the 14th of August, 1855, and was signed by him on or before the succeeding day; and that such caveat was accompanied by “a” drawing, which was prepared and in existence before the preparation of the specification and description of the invention, and was made from a model constructed by him more than a week previous to the 14th of August, 1855. The certified copy from the patent office of what was so filed as a caveat on the 24th of August, 1855, contains a description and two separate drawings. The second of these drawings is not referred to in the description. The description and the first drawing suggest the withdrawal of a cartridge by means of a catch, but they contain no description or representation sufficient to enable a practical working apparatus to be made from them. Morse’s ideas, so far as they can be learned from such description and first drawing, do not appear to have been further developed on the plan there suggested. The plan set forth in his patent of October, 1856, is a different plan from
The injunction is granted.