Cluett v. Claflin

• Decision Date: 11 May 1891
• Citation: 35 L.Ed. 385,140 U.S. 180,11 S.Ct. 725
• Parties: CLUETT et al. v. CLAFLIN et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

140 U.S. 180

11 S.Ct. 725

35 L.Ed. 385

CLUETT et al. v. CLAFLIN et al.

May 11, 1891.

This was a bill in equity to recover for the infringement of letters patent No. 156,880, granted November 17, 1874, to Robert Cluett for an improvement in shirts. In his specification the patentee stated the object of his invention to be —'First, to avoid the folding in of the edges of the bosom, and the raw edges and loose threads thereof which disfigure the bosom when so folded in; second, to stay the bosom, rendering it firmer in itself, and less likely to rumple or break; third, to avoid wrinkling of the bosom by the unevenness or fulling up of any one of the layers composing the bosom in any part thereof,— each and all of these three features having reference to the preparatory stages of manufacture, but to be completed in the bosom as attached to the shirt.'

'Its construction consists in preparing and fixing the two or more layers in place smoothly in relation t ea ch other, and then binding the edge with a folded strip of cloth like the bosom front, cut bias (or diagonally) or straight from the piece, so as to turn the curves of the bosom without tendency to gather on one side, and so as to suit round, square, or any other shaped bosom, this binding extending entirely around the bosom, (except at the neck and yoke,) and holding the parts firmly in place by a line of stitches before the bosom is inserted in or placed on or attached to the body of the shirt, and finally attaching the bosom so prepared to the shirt-body, in the manner hereinafter shown. The invention consists in the shirt-bosom or shirt and bosom, so constructed, and not in the bosom alone.'

His claims were as follows:

'(1) In combination with a shirt-body, a shirt-bosom bound on the outer edge with a folded and stitched binding, and attached to the shirt-body by a separate line of stitching through such binding.

'(2) The shirt-bosom, S, composed of two or more thicknesses of cloth, B, L, bound on the outer edge with the binding, B", and secured to the shirt-front, F, by the line of stitching, O.'

Upon the hearing in the circuit court the invention was held to be invalid for want of patentable novelty, and the bill was dismissed. 24 Blatchf. 412, and 30 Fed. Rep. 921. Plaintiffs thereupon appealed to this court.

Saml. A. Duncan and James A. Skilton, for appellants.

David Tim, for appellees.

Mr. Justice BROWN, after stating the facts as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

A large amount of testimony was taken in this case in the circuit court, but all that we find it necessary to consider lies within a very narrow compass. Stripped of its verbiage, this patent consists simply of a shirt-bosom bound at its edges, and stitched through...