Byers Mach. Co. v. Keystone Driller Co., 5433.
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit) |
| Writing for the Court | DENISON and HICKS, Circuit , and SIMONS |
| Citation | 44 F.2d 283 |
| Parties | BYERS MACH. CO. et al. v. KEYSTONE DRILLER CO. |
| Docket Number | No. 5433.,5433. |
| Decision Date | 05 November 1930 |
44 F.2d 283 (1930)
BYERS MACH. CO. et al.
v.
KEYSTONE DRILLER CO.
No. 5433.
Circuit Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.
November 5, 1930.
H. B. Fay, of Cleveland, Ohio (Fay, Oberlin & Fay and Harold B. Hood, all of Cleveland, Ohio, on the brief), for appellants.
F. O. Richey, of Cleveland, Ohio (Philip E. Siggers, of Washington, D. C., and Richey & Watts, of Cleveland, Ohio, on the brief), for appellee.
Before DENISON and HICKS, Circuit Judges, and SIMONS, District Judge.
SIMONS, District Judge.
This case involves alleged infringement of a ditching or excavating machine manufactured by the plaintiff and claimed to be protected by four patents, the patent to Clutter, No. 1,317,431, the patent to Wagner, No. 1,476,121, the patent to R. R. Downie, No. 1,511,114, and the second Downie patent, No. 1,543,250. Substantially all of the claims of the patents in suit are challenged on the ground of invalidity because of anticipation or lack of invention, and infringement is denied, except in the case of the second Downie patent, in respect to which infringement is admitted, coupled, however, with the claim that it involves an element of the device not important to its function, and copied inadvertently.
In order to have a broad, general view of the controversy, it is important to understand that the plaintiff's commercial machine, which it is claimed is protected by the patents, is, in its fully developed state, a digging machine operating upon the principle of a mechanical hoe or mattock, as distinguished from mechanical shovels, scoops, rakes, or skimmers. Its claimed outstanding advantages are that it can be operated successfully in digging in rock and other hard materials; that it can be operated with accuracy during both the digging and unloading operations by one man control; that it is a unitary structure that can be moved instantly in any one of four directions; that it is able to pick and break through a large percentage of rock that is usually found in fields of digging operations; and that it has thereby achieved important new results and improved old results in the trench-digging art.
The basic patent is the one to Clutter. If this patent is valid, it is entitled to a breadth of construction permitted to pioneers in any art. The other patents in suit relate to improvements in the several elements of the Clutter device of the class which usually follow the disclosure of new instrumentalities in their evolution toward perfection in doing the work originally contemplated. Admittedly the inventions involved in the patents in suit are combinations of old elements, but out of the combinations it is claimed there resulted a device capable of obtaining an entirely new result, and that the patentees contributed a machine of great usefulness and value to the industry.
Of the Clutter patent only claim 4 is alleged to be infringed. This claim discloses an excavating machine with (a) a pivoted boom, (b) a scoop-carrying member pivotally connected therewith, (c) a pulling member for elevating and lowering said boom, (d) a pivotal means carried by the boom and connecting the pulling member therewith and said scoop-carrying member, (e) a scoop connected with the scoop-carrying member and projecting toward the boom, and (f) a pulling member connected with said scoop. The patentee states that his invention relates to an excavating machine, and has for its object the provision of a simply constructed and operated mechanism for holding, elevating, and emptying...
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...of competitors is the very essence of the right conferred by a patent." See also Byers Machinery Co. v. Keystone Driller Co., 6 Cir., 44 F.2d 283. That Sperry's lawful advantage had no substantial effect upon its competitors is evidenced by the fact that Sperry does less than one percent of......
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