Clark, Ex v. Wooster
| Citation | 30 L.Ed. 392,119 U.S. 322,7 S.Ct. 217 |
| Parties | CLARK, EX'X, and others v. WOOSTER |
| Decision Date | 06 December 1886 |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
Fredk. P. Fish, for appellants, Clark, Ex'x, and others.
Frederic H. Betts, for appellee, Wooster.
This is a suit on a patent, brought by Wooster, the appellee, against the persons composing the firm of Johnson, Clark & Co., of New York, to restrain them from infringing the patent, and to recover profits and damages. The bill was filed on the twentieth of December, 1879, and the patent expired 15 days afterwards. The patent was for folding guides used on sewing-machines, and is the same that was involved in the case of Thomson v. Wooster, 114 U. S. 104; S. C. 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 788. It was granted to one Douglas in October, 1858, for a period of 14 years, was extended in October, 1872, for 7 years longer, and was then, in the same month, surrendered and reissued. The bill does not specify the particular ground on which the reissued patent was granted; and although the answer avers that it was unlawfully granted, that the original was surrendered for the purpose of claiming more and other things than were described and claimed in it, and that the reissued patent is not for the same invention for which the original was granted, it does not set out the original, nor was the original put in evidence in the cause, and no evidence was offered to substantiate the allegations of the answer. The complainant produced the reissued patent in evidence, and proved infringement. The defendant adduced evidence before the examiner, but out of time, and it was ruled out by the court. A decree was made establishing the patent, and the infringement thereof by the defendants, and referring it to a master to take and state an account of profits, and to assess damages, and the defendants were ordered to produce their books, papers, and devices used, so far as related to the matter in issue. Upon this reference the parties entered into a stipulation before the master, by which the defendants admitted that they had purchased and disposed of 15,000 folding guides covered by the decree, and in consideration thereof the complainant waived all further testimony as to profits received by the defendants therefrom, and agreed to rely on proof of damages in place of profits. The complainant adduced evidence to show that he had an established license fee of 10 cents for each folding guide purchased or disposed of, and has granted licenses at that rate to divers sewing-machine companies. The master, being satisfied with this evidence, reported the damages at $1,500. The defendants filed a number of exceptions to the report, none of which were sustained, and a decree was entered for the amount of damages reported. The defendants thereupon appealed.
The points taken by the appellants are—First, that the court below, sitting as a court of equity, had no jurisdiction of the case, because the complainant had a plain and adequate remedy at law; second, that the reissue of the patent was illegal by reason of laches in applying for it; third, that the court erred in finding that the measure of damages was an established license fee, and that such license fee was proved.
As to the first point, the bill does not show any special ground for equitable relief, except the prayer for an injunction. To this the complainant was entitled, even for the short time the patent had to run, unless the court had deemed it improper to grant it. If, by the course of the court, no injunction could have been obtained in that time, the bill could very proper y have been dismissed, and ought to have been. But, by the rules of the court in which the suit was brought, only four days' notice of application for an injunction was required. Whether one was applied for does not appear. But the court had jurisdiction of the case, and could retain the bill, if, in its discretion, it saw fit to do so, which it did. It might have dismissed the bill, if it had deemed it inexpedient to grant an injunction; but that was a matter in its own sound discretion, and with that discretion it is not our province to interfere,...
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