268 F. 966 | 6th Cir. | 1920
Young brought infringement suits against the Refrigerator Company (hereafter called the defendant), based upon patents for a door latch, numbered 928,030, issued July 13, 1909, to Crampton; patent No. 988,313, issued April 4, 1911, to Cramp-ton; reissue patent No. 14,205, issued October 17, 1916, to Young; and design patents, No. 46,305, of August 18, 1914, and No. 48,958, of April 25, 1916, issued to Young, for latch casings. The District Court sustained, and found infringed, claims 1 and 3 of No. 928,030, claim 5 of 988,313, and the single claim of the design patent No. 48,958; assessed plaintiff’s damages upon the theory of a reasonable royalty on the mechanical patents and at $250 on the design patent; found the reissued patent invalid, and design patent No. 46,305 not infringed; and entered a final decree for injunction and damages on the three patents. The refrigerator company appeals from the findings of validity and infringements and damages; Young appeals against the award of damages, because insufficient, and against the decree as to the reissued patent.
The defendant manufactures refrigerators, and needed, for the doors thereof, a latch which would hold the doors tightly shut; Young was in control of a company which manufactured such articles under the Crampton patents, and, for a period, defendant bought and paid for latches which were manufactured by the company in alleged compliance with the inventions and design of Crampton and Young. Later defendant made changes in the form of the latch, and made or bought llie changed form; these suits challenge its right to do so.
The defendant uses a device shown by the following sketches; Rig. 1 showing the unlatched and Fig. 2 the latched position. It embodies
a more or less disc-shaped piece stamped out of sheet metal and intended to be pivoted near its center to ears projecting from a base attached to the casing. The upper portion is cut away, so as to form an irregular recess, the lower side of which is produced into an arm. The lower part is extended to one side to form a thumb piece. It is, characteristically, a simple lever extending from the thumb piece to the end of the opposite arm, and carrying on its upper side just above its pivot or fulcrum a hook or jaw. In the edge of the disc, on the side opposite the thumb piece, is' a notch or recess, and inserted into this recess is one end of a small bar, the other end of which is held loosely in a guide on the base plate, so that it may have both longitudinal and swinging motion therein. A cylindrical coiled spring surrounds this bar and is held between stops, at one end on the bar and at the other end on the plate. This coiled spring is normally under compression, and, accordingly, the rod has a spring-actuated longitudinal thrust toward the disc. As the striker pin is moved down and comes in contact with the disc arm, it causes the disc to rotate on its pivot, the disc notch swings and thrusts the end of the bar, and this exerts compression on the spring, and the rod yields longitudinally until it passes the dead center or direct line to the disc pivot. It will then snap further into the position shown in Fig. 2.
It is not easy to find in defendant’s structure the “pair of toggle arms” called for by the claim. The first impression is that one of these extends from thumb piece to pivot, and the other from the pivot to the lower end of the spring; but this is erroneous, since the fixed pivot is not and cannot be the toggle joint. If a toggle joint exists, it must be at the point of contact between the disc edge and the spring-pressed rod, because this is the only point the lateral motion of which tends to cause longitudinal motion at the ends of its arms; and it thus becomes apparent that the only toggle arm which can be found in the disc is that portion thereof extending in a straight line from the pivot to the notch. If we conceive the adjacent portions of the disc to be cut away, we will have here an arm (indicated by the dotted lines which we have inserted in the two figures) which might be considered a toggle arm exerting its longitudinal end thrust against the
It seems natural to classify the defendant’s device with the type of spring-snap catches, of which there are several instances in the record, where a simple lever is pressed by a spring which will throw and hold the lever into either one of its alternate positions, according as the lever passes the center' line or line of direct spring pressure in one way or the other; but if the defendant’s latch is reconstructed with the mind’s eye sufficiently to lay bare the pair of toggle arms and. the characteristic toggle joint action which perhaps lurk therein, and it is thus brought within the patented monopoly, it becomes necessary to ascertain whether, from this broad viewpoint, Crampton invented anything.
There are several earlier patents upon latches which disclose a spring-pressed toggle joint yielding laterally against the blow of the striker pin, and then holding the striker pin after the center has been passed, in nearly, if not quite, as great degree as this conception can be found in defendant’s device. Of these, it is sufficient to refer to the patent to Conklin, No. 58,914, dated September 8, 1897. He had a plate lever quite similar to defendant’s, except that the outer end was developed into a weight instead of into a thumb piece. The toggle arm, merged in the plate and resting at one end on the fixed pivot, is to be found in Conklin in- the identical form and position in which it is found in defendant (if, indeed, it is truly present in either). The other supposed toggle arm, in the form of a spring-pressed thrust rod, is essentially the same as in defendant’s device, excepting that its lower end is attached nearly underneath the fixed pivot, and the two toggle arms therefore make at their joint practically a right angle, instead of an obtuse angle, as in defendant’s form. In Conklin, as in defendant, the blow of the striker pin is not delivered directly upon the toggle joint in a line at right angles to the line connecting the other ends of the toggle arms, as it is in Crampton; but in both Conklin and defendant this necessary thrust at this right angle is brought about indirectly. The contact of the striker pin with one side of the open jaw rotates the disc or plate. This rotation swings the toggle joint in the arc of a circle, and this arc very soon sufficiently approximates the necessary right-angled thrust.
The only difference in this respect, between defendant and Conklin, is that, because Conklin’s toggle joint angle is more acute, a little further swing is necessary before the desired sufficiently right-angled thrust is achieved; but this is a matter of slight degree. Neither in the purposé to be accomplished nor in the means employed can we find any substantial distinction between Conklin and defendant, of a character which would allow Conklin (if later) to escape the charge of infringement, if the defendant is guilty. In other words, if the defendant has the “pair of toggle arms” called for by the claim of the patent in suit, so has Conklin; and it necessarily follows that the claim cannot be valid, if its scope is extended far enough to reach the supposi-titious toggle arms which, with a sufficient liberality of construction, might be found in defendant.
This conclusion as to the absence from defendant’s device of the “pair of toggle arms”, makes it unnecessary to consider whether the single hook which the defendant uses should be considered the equivalent of the pair of jaws specified in the claim.
What has been said as to claim 1 applies with at least equal force to claim 3 of the same patent. It calls, in addition, for the striker pin, which, in some form, must be understood as impliedly appurtenant to claim 1, and is also more specific in its requirement for two jaws.
Plainly, the defendant does not have these in the form specified, .and the question is one of equivalency. In the patented device, the two toggle arms, after assembling, are stopped from outward motion in either direction, so that they cannot open far enough to permit the inserted shank to fall out, while the heads or buttons, at each end of the shank, prevent it from coming out endways. On the theory that defendant’s device contains the two toggle arms of the patent, it may be said that one of them — the one which is constructively found embodied in the disc between fixed pivot and notch — has a recess in its end; the notch constituting that recess. The other arm, the spring-thrust bar, has no recess, but has a pointed end, which enters the notch, bears therein, and is thereby held from motion in the plane of the disc. To prevent excessive wear upon this bearing, and (perhaps) to prevent the bar from slipping laterally out of the notch, defendant interposes,
We cannot find, in this form, and within any reasonable latitude of construction, the equivalent of the patented form. The latter was devised to be substituted for the pivot.between the two toggle arms in the earlier patent. The office of the shank and the engaging recesses is to hold the two arms in proper relation to each other. It is, in substance, the pivot bolt of the older patent, but in a specific form suitable for easy assembling. Defendant never had.any pivot bolt, and had no occasion to use a substitute. The interposed bearing plate has nothing to do with holding the two arms in contact in the plane of the disc, as the bolt does. They are held in position in this plane just the same, whether the interposed plate is present or not. It cannot be considered as the recess in the end of the bar. It faces the wrong way. Notch and'plate together constitute only one recess. The advance made by Crampton in respect to pivoting the two arms was, at best, slight, and defendant has not adopted its characteristic feature.
This patent involves a very narrow margin of invention; except that both parties are so thoroughly committed to the theory that it does show invention, that conclusion would be doubtful; but whatever invention there is consists in the relatively small and precise changes in configuration and appearance as compared with Young’s earlier patent. We think the most satisfactory conclusion is that this precise invention was not made until about the middle of June. It was actually developed in detail by the superintendent and draftsman in the Cramp-ton factory. Standing over them with general directions and instructions were Crampton and Young. Young was furnishing the capital, was actually engaged in working out improvements on the different articles that were to be made, and had large experience in this general class of manufacture. He had already perfected a design' for these shells which was midway between the old form and the ultimate form — the patent in suit. Crampton had just received from the Leonards their description of the shape and form of the shell they wanted made for them; but their statements and descriptions were general, and it is not clear that they reached those details of configuration which alone are involved in the controversy.
Under familiar principles, they would be entitled to the invention which they had generally described, and which mechanics and draftsmen working for them had developed in detail; but, under the facts in this case, the factory superintendent and the draftsman must be considered employes of Young rather than of the Leonards. The Leon-ards were the customers and vendees of the Crampton factory, giving instructions as to what they wanted made for them under their purchase contract. Young was, in practical effect, the head of the Cramp-ton factory, and he was already engaged in this precise line of development. We cannot say that he was not entitled to the benefit of whatever invention there was in the details as finally matured. Our only hesitation arises from a letter, written at the time by Crampton, giving credit to the Leonards for the “new design.” This letter does not bind Young, but, under the circumstances, it is forceful evidence. The explanation consistent with our general conclusion is that Crampton did not know or appreciate the fact that the Leonards’ suggestions were merely along the general line on which Young had been working, that he had no idea that any patentable invention had been made, and that he desired to please and flatter the customers upon whom he was relying for a successful business.
The decree as to the reissued patent is affirmed; the other decree is reversed for modification, and the case is remanded for proceedings in accordance with this opinion. No costs are awarded in this court.
Claim 1: “A latch having a keeper, said keeper having, in combination, a pair of jaws, a pair of toggle arms carrying said jaws, and means for yieldingly resisting the movement of the toggle arms towards their center of movement.”
Claim 5: “A latch consisting of a bolt and a handle attached thereto In combination with levers provided with recesses at their meeting ends, a button consisting of heads joined by a shank, said shank positioned in said recesses, means to yieldingly hold the levers in position to form toggle arms and to resist the movement of said toggle arms into the same plane, and means to limit the outward movement of said toggle arms, one of said levers provided with a finger engageable with said bolt.”