Aircraftsmen, Inc. v. Aircraft Equipment Company
| Decision Date | 29 October 1965 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. 64-627. |
| Citation | 247 F. Supp. 469 |
| Parties | AIRCRAFTSMEN, INC., Plaintiff, v. AIRCRAFT EQUIPMENT COMPANY, a Florida corporation, and Richard W. Logan, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida |
William E. Schuyler, Jr., of Browne, Schuyler & Beveridge, Washington, D. C., and Richard A. Pallot of Pallot, Silver, Pallot & Stern, Miami, Fla., for plaintiff.
James E. Cockfield, of Burns, Doane, Benedict, Swecker & Mathis, Washington, D. C., and Thomas H. Anderson, of Anderson & Nadeau, Miami, Fla., for defendants.
This is a suit for infringement of United States Letters patent 2,828,166.
By Pretrial Stipulation, the plaintiff relies on Claim 1 only of this patent.
The defendant denied infringement and, through a Declaratory Judgment counterclaim, asserted invalidity of the patent.
United States patent 2,828,166 designates Matthew M. Herring as inventor and is assigned to the plaintiff, Aircraftsmen, Inc. Matthew M. Herring is the President of the plaintiff corporation.
The structure alleged to infringe the patent is an aircraft service stand manufactured by the defendant, Aircraft Equipment Company, and sold to Lockheed-Georgia Company of Marietta, Georgia pursuant to purchase order No. PJ 96868. (Plaintiff's Exhibit 7)
The trial in this matter commenced September 28, 1965.
Based on the pleadings, the pretrial stipulation, the exhibits and testimony presented during trial, and the written briefs and oral arguments of counsel, the Court makes the following findings.
1. The plaintiff, Aircraftsmen, Inc., is a Florida corporation whose address is 4110 Northwest 36th Avenue, Miami, Florida.
2. The defendant, Aircraft Equipment Company, is a Florida corporation whose address is 4050 Northwest 28th Street, Miami, Florida. The defendant Richard W. Logan's address is 630 Curtiss Parkway, Miami Springs, Florida, and he is a resident of the State of Florida.
3. The Herring patent 2,828,166 issued March 25, 1958 from application Serial No. 531,857 filed September 1, 1955.
4. The Herring patent 2,828,166 is a narrow improvement patent in the field of scaffolding and concerns structural details embodied in a stand which may be employed to facilitate the servicing, cleaning and maintenance of aircraft. Although the plaintiff has sold thirty-eight such stands to the United States Air Force, only two stands have been sold to commercial airlines.
5. Claim 1 of Herring patent 2,828,166 is specifically directed to a combination including a pair of catwalks, each of which is pivoted on the "outer end" of an elevating carriage for horizontal swinging movement. The trackways are in turn mounted on an upright support. Claim 1 calls for a platform mounted on each of the two carriages, with these platforms extending to a position intermediate the carriage trackways whereby a "continuous passageway" is provided between the catwalks.
6. Matthew M. Herring's alleged date of invention of the subject matter of the patent in suit is in 1954 (evidenced by the testimony of the plaintiff's witnesses Matthew M. Herring and Peter Becker and paragraph 8 of page 2 of the Pretrial Stipulation). Each individual element recited in Claim 1 of the Herring patent 2,828,166 was old both as to structure and function prior to 1954 as reflected by the following tabulation of prior art presented during the trial but not cited by the Patent Office.
Elements defined in Claim 1 of the Prior patents which show elements to
Herring Patent be old
--------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------
an upright support structure Support 15 in Lord patent 2,384,939
a plurality of pairs of vertically disposed Opposite edges of each rail 41 in Lord
tracks mounted on said upright patent 2,384,939, i. e. narrow rail faces
support structure shown in cross section in Figure 2 of
this patent
a carriage movably mounted in each pair Two carriage structures, each including
of said tracks, said carriages extending elements 38, 39, 42, 43 and 48 in Lord
horizontally from said support patent 2,384,939
a plurality of elongated catwalks Two catwalks 36 in Lord patent 2,384,939
pivot means mounting one end of each Pivots 44 disposed on outer ends 43 of
of said catwalks to the outer end of said carriages in Lord patent 2,384,939
carriages
a platform mounted on each of said carriages, Mutually facing extension of platforms
said platforms extending to a 16 in Mitchell patent 2,778,694 and mutually
position intermediate said pairs of tracks facing extensions of platforms "f"
whereby a continuous passageway is provided of Lanchester patent 2,430,179
between said catwalks
The Lord patent was introduced as defendant's Exhibits 19A through 19C. The Mitchell patent was introduced as Defendant's Exhibits 21A through 21C. The Lanchester patent was introduced as Defendant's Exhibits 22A and 22B.
7. The United States Lord patent 2,384,939 was not cited by the Examiner during the prosecution of the Herring patent 2,828,166. The Lord patent discloses the entire combination of elements recited in Claim 1 of Herring patent 2,828,166 except for platform extensions providing a "continuous passageway."
No patent was cited by the Patent Office during the prosecution of the Herring patent which discloses this much of the combination set forth in Claim 1.
8. The Mitchell patent 2,778,694 and the Lanchester patent 2,430,179, which were not cited by the Patent Office, both disclose mutually facing extensions on platforms which may be independently elevated. These extensions, when horizontally aligned, would provide a "continuous passageway." The Mitchell patent specifically recites that the aligned platforms provide a "continuous walkway."
During the prosecution of the Herring patent, the Examiner did not cite any prior art as pertinent as the Mitchell and Lanchester patents are to the "continuous passageway" concept recited in Claim 1 of this patent.
9. In a deposition taken January 10, 1962 in connection with Civil Action 10,685 then pending before this Court, the patentee Herring admitted that the details of his stand beyond the concept of catwalks mounted on carriages for elevating and swinging movement involved "routine engineering." (Pages 46 and 47 of Herring deposition introduced as Defendant's Exhibit 10).
10. At no point during the trial did the plaintiff offer any evidence or testimony tending to establish that, in view of the disclosures of the Lord, Mitchell and Lanchester patents which the Examiner did not consider, the utilization of platform extensions to provide a continuous passageway between independently elevatable and pivotable catwalks would be unobvious to those having ordinary skill in the service stand art.
11. The idea involved in Claim 1 of Herring patent 2,828,166, of mounting a platform supporting carriage for elevating movement on trackways, mounting the trackways on an upright support, and supporting a catwalk on the carriage for horizontal, pivotable movement was used in an aircraft service stand in use on the premises of American Airmotive in Miami, Florida in 1952, i. e. over a year ahead of Herring's alleged date of invention in 1954. The structure of this stand was established at trial by Defendant's Exhibits 18A through 18C. Uncontradicted testimony by defendant's witness James C. Chokanis established that the stand in these exhibits was in use during 1952.
12. The idea of a work platform having two independently and horizontally pivotable catwalks was employed in an aircraft service stand in use on the premises of Eastern Airlines in Miami, Florida prior to Herring's alleged date of invention of 1954. The structure of this stand was established at trial by Defendant's Exhibits 7A through 7C. This stand includes platform means providing a walkway or passageway between two pivoted catwalks as schematically illustrated in Defendant's Exhibit 7C. The existence of this stand prior to 1954 was established in paragraph 48 of page 7 of the Pretrial Stipulation.
13. The idea of mounting a catwalk on a tower for elevating movement was embodied in an aircraft service stand sold to the United States Air Force prior to 1954. The structure of this stand was established at trial by Defendant's Exhibits 6A and 6B at trial. The existence of this stand prior to 1954 was established by paragraph 49 of page 7 of the Pretrial Stipulation. During the trial Herring admitted that he was aware of this stand when he represented to the Patent Office in column 1 of his patent that "ladders, trucks and makeshift scaffolding" constituted the type of equipment used to service aircraft prior to his alleged invention.
14. The concept of providing a platform extension in an aircraft service stand to increase working space is disclosed in the United States Swaisgood patent 2,362,170, not cited by the Patent Office, which also antedates Herring's alleged date of invention in 1954. The structure featured in this patent was introduced as Defendant's Exhibits 20A through 20C.
15. Except for the recitation of "platforms extending to a position intermediate said pairs of tracks whereby a continuous passageway is provided between said catwalks," the combination of elements recited in Claim 1 of patent 2,828,166 has, in substance, been ruled by the Patent Office to be unpatentable over the prior art which was cited by the Examiner. This ruling is evidenced by the rejection of Claim 3 in Herring application Serial No. 531,857 and Claim 2 of a Matthews application Serial No. 533,752, filed August 12, 1955. The subject matter and scope...
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