Barnard v. FRUEHAUF TRAILER COMPANY
| Decision Date | 03 August 1966 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 13436. |
| Citation | 260 F. Supp. 605 |
| Parties | Alfred L. BARNARD, Plaintiff, v. FRUEHAUF TRAILER COMPANY (Now Fruehauf Corporation), Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas |
Ranseler O. Wyatt, Houston, Tex., for plaintiff.
Harness, Dickey & Pierce, Don K. Harness, Edward R. Casselman, Detroit, Mich., Butler, Binion, Rice, Cook & Knapp, James A. Bargfrede, Houston, Tex., for defendant.
This is an action for infringement of United States Patent No. 2,494,799 which issued on January 17, 1950, to W. H. Duvall and Plaintiff, A. L. Barnard, on a patent application filed in the United States Patent Office on September 16, 1946. Plaintiff, a resident of Houston, Texas, is the present owner of the patent in suit, having acquired all of Duvall's interest in the same in 1947. Defendant, Fruehauf Corporation, is a Michigan corporation doing business in Texas, and having a place of business in Houston, Texas. The patent in suit relates to a coupling device for connecting a trailer to a tractor and Plaintiff accuses Defendant of manufacturing, using and selling coupling devices which infringe claims 1 and 2 of the patent in suit. Defendant contends that it does not infringe the patent claims in suit and that such claims are invalid. The matter was brought on for trial on November 15, 1965, and the trial lasted two days. There is no dispute regarding jurisdiction of this Court.
1. Plaintiff, A. L. Barnard, is the owner of patent in suit No. 2,494,799, and entitled to bring this action against Defendant for infringement of claims 1 and 2 of said patent in suit.
2. Defendant, Fruehauf Corporation, has within six years next preceding the filing of the complaint herein and subsequent to the issuance of the patent in suit, manufactured, used and sold in Houston, Texas, and elsewhere, coupling devices identified as Plaintiff's Exhibit 5 which are accused by Plaintiff to infringe both claims 1 and 2 of the patent in suit.
3. Plaintiff has licensed others to make and sell trailer couplings under the patent in suit and has received royalty payments as the result of the making and selling trailer couplings by his licensees.
4. Plaintiff attempted to obtain relatively broad patent protection on the coupling device shown and described in the patent in suit and claim 9, which was abandoned during the prosecution of the patent application which resulted in the patent in suit, is illustrative of this effort. Abandoned claim 9 reads as follows:
9. A trailer coupling comprising a plate having a transverse slot there-through, transverse flanges secured to one side of the plate on opposite sides of the slot, a kingpin which works through the slot, means for mounting the kingpin between the plates to rotate on a transverse axis, said kingpin being mounted to move through the slot into inactive position approximately parallel with the plate and into active position perpendicular to the plate, means for supporting the kingpin in inactive position, means for maintaining the kingpin in active position.
5. Claim 9, which was abandoned in the patent office by the patentees of the patent in suit, did not contain many of the specific limitations which are present in claims 1 and 2 of the patent in suit. Claims 1 and 2 read as follows:
6. The file wrapper (DX-35) of the patent application which resulted in the patent in suit clearly shows that claim 9 was rejected by the patent office examiner as unpatentable over the prior art and this claim was then immediately cancelled by the applicants without any argument. This abandoned claim 9 covers the accused coupling device of Defendant and would have been infringed if it had issued in the patent in suit and not been abandoned in view of the prior art.
7. Both Plaintiff's and Defendant's expert testified that Defendant's accused device (PX-5) did not contain all of the elements and limitations specifically included in claims 1 and 2 of the patent in suit in order to induce the patent office examiner to allow them over the prior art and issue the patent in suit. The file wrapper (DX-35) of the patent in suit clearly shows that these limitations were necessarily included in the patent claims and that they cannot be ignored.
8. Defendant's accused device (PX-5) does not have "flanges secured to and depending from said plate," "a kingpin whose lower end is approximately square in cross-section and is fitted through the large end of the slot," "said kingpin being mounted to move through the slot into inactive position beneath the plate," "a cross pin carried by the lower margin of the flanges on which the kingpin is supported when in inactive position," all as called for and recited in claim 1 of the patent in suit. Claim 1 of the patent in suit is not infringed by Defendant's accused device (PX-5).
9. Defendant's accused device (PX-5) does not have "flanges secured to and depending from said plate," "a kingpin whose lower end is approximately square in horizontal cross-section," "said kingpin being mounted to move through the slot into inactive position beneath the plate," all as called for and recited in claim 2 of the patent in suit. Claim 2 of the patent in suit is, therefore, not infringed by Defendant's accused device (PX-5).
10. Defendant's accused device (PX-5) could not be turned over and used on a truck or tractor like the device in the patent in suit because there would be nothing to hold the kingpin in an inoperative horizontal position and it would fall down into a position from which it would be difficult to retrieve and return it to an active, usable position. If Defendant's accused device were so mounted and used it would not have all of the elements and limitations in claims 1 and 2 of the patent in suit and these claims would not be infringed.
11. Because of the arguments made to the patent office and the position taken by applicants in the patent office proceedings during the prosecution of the application which resulted in the patent in suit, Plaintiff is estopped from attempting to broaden the meaning of claims 1 and 2 of the patent in suit beyond what is specifically recited therein and thus cannot recapture the broad arrangement defined in abandoned claim 9.
12. The Austin Trailer Company, of Muskegon, Michigan, manufactured and sold folding kingpin type trailer coupling devices more than one year prior to the filing date (September 16, 1946) of the application which resulted in the patent in suit. This was established by the uncontroverted testimony of three witnesses, several dated drawings and a catalog published and used by The Austin Trailer Company in ...
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