Andis Clipper Co. v. Oster Corp.
| Decision Date | 14 December 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 72-C-107.,72-C-107. |
| Citation | 481 F. Supp. 1360 |
| Parties | ANDIS CLIPPER CO., Plaintiff, v. OSTER CORPORATION, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Wisconsin |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
Walther E. Wyss, Mason, Kolehmainen, Rathburn & Wyss, Chicago, Ill., for defendant.
Robert E. Clemency, Michael, Best & Friedrich, Milwaukee, Wis., for plaintiff.
This is a patent suit wherein the plaintiff Andis Clipper Co. (Andis) alleges infringement by the defendant Oster Corporation (Oster) of United States Patent No. 3,101,535 belonging to Andis. That patent was granted with reference to a set of hair clipper blades with laterally extending tooth bars. Jurisdiction is grounded on 28 U.S.C. § 1338 and venue is conceded to be proper.
Only Claim 3 of the patent in suit is alleged to be infringed. Plaintiff stated in court on the record at the outset of trial that if Claim 3 is held invalid, the plaintiff will disclaim other claims. Plaintiff further indicated that should Claim 3 be held valid but not infringed, it will never thereafter charge infringement on any of the other claims. Thus, Claims 1 and 2 are out of the suit except insofar as Claim 2 may be relevant in considering the questions of anticipation or obviousness.
This case presents issues of validity and infringement. Plaintiff not only claims that the defendant infringed plaintiff's patent, however, but also that defendant did so knowingly, willfully, and maliciously. Furthermore, there is a claim for attorney's fees.
Trial to the Court was held commencing June 27, 1975, and consumed approximately six days. At the conclusion thereof, the Court took the matter under advisement and requested post trial briefs as well as proposed findings. Pursuant to Rule 52(a), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, this memorandum and order shall constitute the Court's findings of facts and conclusions of law on the issues herein.
The plaintiff, Andis Clipper Co. is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of Wisconsin with its principal place of business at 1718 Layard Avenue, Racine, Wisconsin. Matthew L. Andis, son of the patentee, and his sister, a Mrs. Dunn, each own approximately 50 percent of the corporation.
The defendant, Oster Corporation is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of Wisconsin with its principal place of business at 5055 N. Lydell Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Oster is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sunbeam Corporation.
Both Andis and Oster are engaged in the manufacture and sale of blade sets and hair clippers and have been competing in the market of sales to professional barbers since the middle 1920's. Andis sells exclusively to professional barbers, while Oster sells to both the professional market and the public at large.
Hair clippers or hair cutting mechanisms commonly have blade sets which are generally rectangular and are comprised of a shear plate extending laterally with a series of teeth extending along the forward edge of the body portions thereof; a movable blade likewise extending laterally and having a series of teeth along the forward edge of the body portion thereof; and, bearing surfaces which support and guide the movable blade for lateral reciprocation on the fixed blade or shear plate. In operation, the movable blade is reciprocated along the shear plate to effect hair cutting, either manually in a hand operated device, or by an electric motor in the more modern versions.
Hair clippers may have teeth which the parties have denominated clipper teeth, that is, being separated by spaces which diverge forwardly so that the openings to the spaces are considerably wider than the width of the teeth tips so as to facilitate feeding of the hair for cutting. It should be noted, however, that, although figures 2 and 3 of the patent at issue show such clipper teeth, the language of Claim 3 of the patent contains no such description and some of the pertinent prior art involves a design with teeth and spaces of uniform width.
The invention of the particular blade set in suit was made by Matthew G. Andis about 1961. On March 14, 1962 he filed a patent application entitled "Blade Assembly with Lateral Extensions" and on August 27, 1963, U.S. Patent No. 3,101,535 was issued for a set of hair clipper blades with laterally extending tooth bars. (See Appendix)
All right, title and interest in and to the Andis patent in suit, including the right to bring suit for infringement of the claim of said patent, has been assigned by Matthew G. Andis to the plaintiff company.
Commencing in November of 1967, plaintiff first sold hair cutting devices known as T-edgers, which used a blade set covered by the patent in suit. It subsequently developed and sold a number of additional devices using a similar blade set. Throughout the course of the trial, both sides began the practice of referring to those hair cutting devices of plaintiff's that used the patent in suit as T-devices (i. e., T-edger, T-outliner, and T-liner).
The Andis '535 patent (PX 1; DX 87) is directed to a blade set comprising two main elements in Claims 2 and 3: (1) a shear plate or stationary cutting blade; and (2) a movable blade or cutter. The claims do not specify the size or shape of either blade although they do specify that each has cutting teeth along its forward edge. The shape of the teeth is not described. The improvement over the prior art is alleged to be the addition to the cutting elements of "lateral extension bars."
The specifications of the '535 patent also set forth that an objective of the invention is:
To provide such extensions on an otherwise standard blade set, thereby making the conventional broad or widely spaced bearing surfaces effective to control the movement of the extensions of the respective blades. . . .
The specifications also contain the contention that the blade assembly with lateral extensions:
Results in greatly increasing the length of the series of teeth, and the teeth at both sides of the blade are on very narrow bars which can be introduced into the nostrils or ears to remove superfluous hair.
Thus, the specification points to use in the nostrils and ears and also the implied increase in the cutting capacity by virtue of the increase in the frontal length of the series of teeth.
Although none of the claims of the patent in suit are limited to a barber's clipper as such and the specifications likewise appear to be unlimited, it became clear during trial that the T-shaped blade set has its greatest utility in outlining or trimming human hair as a part of the hair cutting process. It is used particularly above and behind the ears and at the nape of the neck.
As indicated above, at the outset of the trial, to simplify the issues, the parties stipulated that plaintiff limited its claim of infringement to Claim 3 of the patent in suit and agreed that if the patent were to be found invalid it would disclaim Claims 1 and 2. It was also agreed that if the patent was found to be valid but not infringed, it would never claim infringement as to Claims 1 or 2.
Although the drawings and descriptions disclose the lateral extensions on both ends of the two blades, and Claims 1 and 3 require extensions on both ends, Claim 2 is sufficiently broad to cover a blade set with extensions at only one end:
Claim 2 is henceforth considered only as it may relate to anticipation or obviousness.
The introductory part of each of the three claims of the '535 patent calls for a "hair clipper blade set" without any indication as to whether the patent claims run to human or animal hair, or both. Nor do the claims set forth the type of hair to be cut, whether it be short, stiff, beard hair or long, limp hair such as that found on the back of the head. Yet, this very issue was debated vigorously and at length by the respective counsel.
None of the claims of the patent in suit recites that the blade set is to be utilized for trimming or outlining at the sideburns or neck or behind the ears and the patent...
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...Cir.1963) (the inventor is conclusively presumed to know prior art, whether or not he has actual knowledge); Andis Clipper Co. v. Oster Corp., 481 F.Supp. 1360, 1376 (E.D.Wis.1979); Novelart Mfg. Co. v. Carlin Container Corp., 363 F.Supp. 58 (D.N.J.1973); Lundy Electronics & Systems, Inc. v......
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Construing patent claims according to their "interpretive community": a call for an attorney-plus-artisan perspective.
...by its title, specifications, exhibits or by the commercial embodiments of the claimed invention."); Andis Clipper Co. v. Oster Corp., 481 F. Supp. 1360, 1377 (E.D. Wis. 1979) (declaring it "impermissible in defense of a patent to read into the specifications or claims of the patent structu......