Application of Dalton

• Decision Date: 10 April 1951
• Docket Number: Patent Appeal No. 5749.
• Citation: 188 F.2d 170
• Parties: Application of DALTON et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA)

188 F.2d 170 (1951)

Application of DALTON et al.

Patent Appeal No. 5749.

United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.

March 6, 1951.

Rehearing Denied April 10, 1951.

John J. Rogan, New York City, for appellants.

E. L. Reynolds, Washington, D. C. (H. S. Miller, Washington, D. C., of counsel), for Commissioner of Patents.

Before GARRETT, Chief Judge, and JACKSON, O'CONNELL, JOHNSON, and WORLEY, Judges.

JACKSON, Judge.

Appellants have appealed from a decision of the Board of Appeals of the United States Patent Office affirming a decision of the Primary Examiner finally rejecting claims 12, 13, 15, 16, and 38 of an application, serial No. 435,944, filed March 24, 1942, for "Telefacsimile Recording and Duplicating Paper," as not reading upon the elected species and in rejecting claims 21, 23 to 26, inclusive, and 39, as unpatentable over a patent to Bjorksten et al., No. 2,188,590, dated January 30, 1940, upon an application, serial No. 188,707, filed February 4, 1938. Claim 37 was allowed.

We agree with the board that claims 21 and 26 are illustrative of the claimed subject matter. They read as follows:

"21. A duplicating telefacsimile receiving blank comprising a paper backing having its surface treated to render it electrically conductive and incorporating a transferable dye, and a coating completely covering said surface for normally preventing transfer of said dye to another surface in contact therewith, said coating having the property of being removable in response to electric signals applied thereto in localized areas and without substantial removal of said surface.

"26. A recording and duplicating blank having a predetermined transverse electric conductivity to be utilized in recording electric telegraph signals, said blank comprising a pliable web having an outer coating which is selectively removable in localized areas in response to impressed electric telegraph signals, said web having between its surface and said outer coating an intermediate duplicating coating which is completely masked by said outer coating except at said localized areas, said duplicating coating containing a transferable dye for duplication at said localized areas only."

The invention relates to recording mediums, particularly to recording blanks used for recording electrical signals such as facsimile telegraph sound signals, or the like, to be translated into visible recordings.

The claimed article is a paper base sheet upon which is an electrically conductive duplicating layer comprising gas black, in which there is a dye or dye mixture. A further coating is superimposed upon the duplicating layer which is called a facsimile coating consisting of white or light colored pigment and a binder.

The patent to Bjorksten et al. relates to a nonsmudging transfer sheet. The sheet is disclosed as having a base of tissue paper, or the like, upon which there is a transfer coating of a soluble dye or of an oleaginous composition over which there is a smudge-proof layer. It is stated in the patent that the invention includes such transfer sheets as carbon paper, typewriter ribbon, and the like, which are coated with a composition transferable to a contacting surface by means of pressure or impact such as would be made by a pencil or the keys of a typewriter. It is said that the sheets may be divided into three classes: "(1) transfer sheets such as ordinary carbon paper, which contain a pigment; (2) transfer sheets such as hectograph carbon paper which contain a soluble dye, and (3) transfer sheets such as printing process carbon paper, which contain a waxy or oily ink absorbent material."

With respect to the claims which were rejected as not readable on the elected species the only one specifically included in the notice of appeal is claim 38. No appeal having been taken on this phase of the case with respect to claims 12, 13, 15, and 16 we may not properly review the rejection of the last named four claims. With respect to claim 38, counsel for appellants have not discussed the ground of rejection in their brief and, therefore, such rejection will not be considered by us. In re Cremer et al., 173 F.2d 376, 36 C.C.P.A., Patents, 980; In re Valko et al., 173 F.2d 275, 36 C.C.P.A., Patents, 899.

The sole issue before us is the rejection of claims 21, 23 to 36, inclusive, and 39, as unpatentable over the prior art.

The Primary Examiner in his decision considered that the structure of claims 23 to 25, inclusive, were met by the Bjorksten et al. reference and was of opinion that claims 24, 26 to 29, inclusive, 33 to 36, inclusive, and 39, did not define anything patentable over the article of the reference where dye is employed in the base coating. He pointed out that claims 21, 30, 31, and 32 set out both a conductive material and a transferable dye. Those claims were considered by the examiner as not involving invention where both carbon and dye were each separately suggested. The examiner held that the limitations intended to distinguish from the prior art and appearing in all of the claims, i. e., that the outer coating is removable in response to a certain process and that the sheet has a pre-determined electrical conductivity, did no more than state a problem and did not recite any structure patentably different from that of the reference.

The board in its decision, after setting out the reasons for rejection by the examiner, stated as follows:

"It is apparently the Examiner's position that the claims rely only upon functional recitations of the outer coating and of the electrical conductivity of the duplicating coating and that these recitations are insufficient to distinguish the claims over Bjorksten et al.

"We have carefully considered the contentions of appellants, in their brief, in support of patentability of the claims. However, these contentions appear to be based entirely upon the use to which the blank is applied, and to the functions of the coatings, rather than to tangible structural differences presented over Bjorksten et al."

It was the board's position that claims 21, 23, 26 to 29, inclusive, 35, and 39 define, as a tangible positive structure, a paper backing, a duplicating coating containing a dye and gas black, and a second or outer coating covering the duplicating coating. It stated that the elements of structure defined in those claims are shown in the drawings of the reference. The board noted that the duplicating coating of the reference may be ordinary carbon paper which contains a pigment and that the resin or lacquer constituting the outer coating in the reference is a soluble inorganic solvent and, therefore, would be removable, as set out in the claims. The adhesiveness of the outer coating shown to be used in the reference was considered by the board as having no bearing with respect to the patentability of those claims which the board regarded as being fully met by the reference.

With respect to claims 24, 25, 30 to 34, inclusive, and 36, the board noted that they are directed to the article defined in other claims in which it is stated that a part of the outer coating has been removed by recording electrical signals or pressure. The board stated that those claims had not been separately commented on by the examiner, but it agreed with the examiner's conclusion that they are unpatentable over the Bjorksten et al. patent.

All of the claims before us are drawn to define structure and in order to be patentable they must depend upon the novel structure set out. Properties, functions, uses, and results that may appear from the defined structure are not definitions of it and may not be solely relied upon to make a claim containing them patentable unless there is a positive setting out of the structure itself in the claims which, of course, must be responsible for properties, functions, uses, and results thereof.

With respect to that phase of the controversy the examiner cited the case of United Carbon Co. et al. v. Binney & Smith Co., 317 U.S. 228, 63 S.Ct. 165, 87 L.Ed. 232. That case was referred to by us in connection with the same question. In re Lloyd, 172 F.2d 583, 36 C.C.P.A., Patents, 817; In re Shortell 173 F.2d 993, 36 C.C.P.A., Patents, 1013.

We are not in agreement with counsel for appellants in his argument that the doctrine of the United Carbon Co. case, supra, and the Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Co. v. Walker et al., doing business as Depthograph Co., 329 U.S. 1, 67 S.Ct. 6, 91 L.Ed. 3, case, has been limited by the court in the case of Faulkner v. Gibbs, 338 U.S. 267, 70 S.Ct. 25, 94 L.Ed. 62. The court in the latter case distinguished the issue there from that of the Halliburton case, supra, and no limitation of any kind circumscribed the doctrine announced in that case. Certainly no limitation was placed upon the doctrine of United Carbon Co. case, supra.

It is clear, from the above-mentioned opinions of the Supreme Court, which are binding on all other courts, that a patent claim cannot be held to be valid where its language is too broad at the precise point of novelty "because of the failure to positively set forth any of the novel structure." Therefore, when a claim defines a structure, as here, the structure at the precise point of novelty must be set out by what it is. The statement of property, function, use, or result of the structure does not meet that test.

It is acknowledged by the Patent Office that the application herein discloses patentable subject matter and that appellants are entitled to a patent on the single claim which sets out the structural difference between its base coating, which is electrically conductive, and the coating of the prior art. The mere statement in any of the claims, as appears here, that the coating is electrically conductive does not define the structure of such coating. All it does, in our opinion, is to state that such coating has the property of being electrically conductive.

Clearly, the only structural difference...