Crown Cork & Seal Co. v. Aluminum Stopper Co.

• Decision Date: 24 March 1900
• Citation: 100 F. 849
• Parties: CROWN CORK & SEAL CO. v. ALUMINUM STOPPER CO. et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

100 F. 849

CROWN CORK & SEAL CO. v. ALUMINUM STOPPER CO. et al.

United States Circuit Court, D. Maryland.

March 24, 1900

Robert H. Parkinson and William A. Fisher, for complainant.

Albert H. Walker and William E. Hoffman, for defendants.

MORRIS District Judge.

This is a suit in equity, praying an injunction and an account, for alleged infringement of a patent for a bottle stopper belonging to the complainant. The inventor, William Painter filed his application for the patent October 12, 1885. By reason of contentions with the examiners of the patent office with respect to the scope of the claims, the patent was not granted until very nearly ten years after the application viz. May 28, 1895, when patent No. 540,072, with four claims was granted to the inventor, William Painter. On December 26th of the same year (about seven months after the granting of the original patent), Painter applied for a reissue; and after rejection by the examiner, which was reversed on appeal to the examiners in chief, and after the overruling of a protest against the allowance of the reissue filed by Robert A. Hall, the patentee under whose patent the defendants are not manufacturing, the reissue No. 11,685, with the additional claim 5, was granted July 26, 1898, to the complainant, as an assignee of Painter, and it is for the alleged infringement of this reissued patent that this suit is instituted. The bottle stopper made and sold by the defendant corporation is made by it under the patent (mentioned above) to Robert A. Hall, upon application filed February 28, 1894 (No. 541,203), issued to him June 18, 1895.

The defendants' answer sets up 11 different defenses, some of which are attempted to be supported by imputations of fraud and perjury; but to sustain these serious charges there has been no persuasive proof adduced, and they will not be further noticed in this opinion, and are dismissed as not entitled to consideration. The other defenses are, in substance, that the reissued patent is void for want of utility; that Painter had abandoned the original application before the patent was granted; that the original patent was surrendered without legal ground for surrender; that claim 5 of the reissue was broader than any claim of the original patent, and the application for the reissue was unreasonably delayed; that claim 5 of the reissue was not for the same invention shown in the original; that the defendants have not infringed; that the complainants are estopped from enforcing the reissued patent against the defendants; and, further, that equity has no jurisdiction, because the complainants have never manufactured, used, or sold any bottle stoppers made according to the reissued patent.

The Painter original patent, No. 540,072, describes a bottle stopper made of a metallic disk, of tin or other nonelastic material, of a convex or cup-like shape. It is inserted in the bottle with its convex side up, so as to rest upon an annular projection inside the neck of the bottle, sufficient to prevent its being pressed down, or of itself falling down, into the bottle. Immediately above the annular projection or shoulder there is an annular recess or groove in the inside of the neck of the bottle, into which the edge of the convex-shaped disk may be expanded to make it fit tightly when by pressure the convexity is flattened out. In order to make a perfectly tight joint, a packing of some sort is placed on the underside of the disk, and rests upon the jutting shoulder, or may be placed, in the form of a gasket, in the annular groove. The inventor also exhibits, in Fig. 5 of the drawings, a modification in which the metal disk is placed resting on the shoulder, with the concave, instead of the convex, side uppermost, and with the edge of the disk turned up more abruptly; and in this form, by the use of the expanding tool, the upturned edge is forced into the annular groove. In the original patent as granted there were four claims: First, for the combination of the bottle neck having an inside groove and a shoulder projecting inward, and a cup-shaped disk or plate of material having permanent flexion all operating as set forth; the second claim is for the same, with a hole in the metal disk, for convenience in extracting the stopper; third, for the same as the first, with the concave side of the disk arranged downward; and, fourth, the same as the first, with a packing beneath, and retained by the disk or plate. All four claims call for the shoulder projecting inward, beyond the wall of the mouth of the bottle above the groove, as an element of the combination. The use of the shoulder is thus explained in the specifications:

'The circumferential diameter of the disk, c, is slightly less than the interior diameter of the bottle neck above the groove, b, so that it will slip freely through and rest upon the shoulder, d, which projects inward slightly further than that portion of the bottle neck above the groove. The disk, c, is introduced concave side downward and convex side outward, so that its edge rests all around on said shoulder, d, and is free to expand into said groove when sufficiently pressure is applied to the convex side to permanently reduced the convexity. Sufficient pressure will suppress the convexity and produce a plane, but the relative dimensions preferred are such that the edge of said disk will reach the bottom of said groove before the convex figure has disappeared, and in that way a hard and tight contact all around may be produced; but, as it is practically impossible to produce disks or bottle necks perfectly circular, it is desirable to employ a packing of some kind with the disk, c. This packing may be in the form of a gasket laid in said groove, around the edge of the disk, or beneath the same, and between it and the shoulder, d; but I prefer to employ a disk of the packing material laid below the disk, c, and either clamped against the shoulder, d, or forced into the bottle throat below said shoulder, and retained there by the disk.'

It would appear that the invention of Painter consists, in substance, of the metal disk, smaller than the opening of the bottle,-- made so that either by direct pressure, or by an expanding tool, it can, while it rests on the inwardly...