Doran Coffee Roasting Co. v. Wyott Manufacturing Co.

• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit
• Writing for the Court: MURRAH, LEWIS and BREITENSTEIN, Circuit
• Citation: Doran Coffee Roasting Co. v. Wyott Manufacturing Co., 267 F.2d 200 (10th Cir. 1959)
• Decision Date: 19 May 1959
• Docket Number: No. 5926.,5926.
• Parties: DORAN COFFEE ROASTING CO., Inc., Appellant, v. WYOTT MANUFACTURING CO., Inc., Appellee.

267 F.2d 200 (1959)

DORAN COFFEE ROASTING CO., Inc., Appellant, v. WYOTT MANUFACTURING CO., Inc., Appellee.

No. 5926.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

May 19, 1959.

James P. Hume, Chicago, Ill., and Horace B. Fay, Jr., Cleveland, Ohio (Gorsuch, Kirgis, Campbell, Walker & Grover, Denver, Colo., were with them on the brief), for appellant.

Frank C. Lowe, Denver, Colo. (A. L. Vogl and William F. Reynard, Denver, Colo., were with him on the brief), for appellee.

Before MURRAH, LEWIS and BREITENSTEIN, Circuit Judges.

MURRAH, Circuit Judge.

This appeal is from a judgment in a patent infringement suit in which the trial court validated Claims 7, 8 and 9; held Claim 8 alone infringed by the accused device, and granted appropriate injunctive relief. See Wyott Mfg. Co. v. Doran Coffee Roasting Co., 160 F.Supp. 644.

The patent in suit relates to an improved conventional type faucet for commercially dispensing liquids from urns and the like. It may be generally described as a cup-like valve chamber having a side inlet and a bottom outlet, with a bonnet-like cover, secured by locking means. The stretchable flanges of a T-shaped diaphragm are clamped between the chamber wall and the bonnet top to seal off the interior of the chamber. The resilient leg or plunger part of the diaphragm extends to the floor of the valve chamber, and by means of spring tension against the top of the bonnet, operates to effectively seal off the outlet and close the faucet. The diaphragm leg is actuated to open the valve by means of a cammed rockable handle connected to the diaphragm plunger on top of the bonnet.

None of the elements of the device are new to the faucet art. All of them are admittedly old. The essential features of the invention are set forth in the following abridgment of Claim 8 in the appellee's brief: "* * * a cup-like valve chamber, having * * * a funnel-like floor with a central outlet * * a single T-shaped stretchable diaphragm * * * the extreme end of the leg of the diaphragm being formed convex from the under side in longitudinal cross-section of said leg, said convex end surface being adapted to effect a circular sealing thereby over said outlet and without contacting the outlet by effecting said sealing against the floor portion of the chamber adjacent but spaced from the outlet * * * said tension means normally causes the plunger leg convex surface circular edge to spreadingly seal off said outlet by exerting pressure through the plunger and causing said circular edge thereof to press against the chamber floor around and without contacting the outlet * * *."

More specifically, patentability is claimed in the utilization of old elements to achieve a new, useful and novel result by the line contact of the peripheral edges of the concave bottom of the resilient plunger against the chamber floor to spreadingly seal off the outlet without contacting it. Numerous disclosures in the prior art are cited against the patent, one of which (Marchant) was not cited in the Patent Office. In totality, they teach the principle of sealing off the outlet in the faucet valve chamber by means of tension pressure of a resilient plunger against the floor of the chamber. But, the result is thus achieved by a surface-to-surface contact of the plunger with the chamber floor. Even Marchant teaches a surface-to-surface contact by a convex plunger seated on a convex type chamber floor, adjacent the outlet. The whole of the prior art, considered together, as we must (i. e. Baum v. Jones & Laughlin Supply Co., 10 Cir., 233 F.2d 865), does not disclose or teach the advantages of a line contact followed by a cleaning squeegee action.

The appellant denies that the claims in suit describe a resilient plunger or leg bottom with sufficient definiteness to claim it as an essential element of the patent. And, it is of course statutorily incumbent upon the patentee to "particularly point out and distinctly claim the part, improvement or combination which he claims as his invention or discovery." 35 U.S.C. § 33.¹ And see Jones v. Bodaness, 10 Cir., 189 F.2d 838. True, the claim did not specifically speak of a resilient leg bottom, but we think that essential feature is sufficiently explicit in a "T-shaped stretchable diaphragm * * to spreadingly seal off the said outlet by exerting pressure through the plunger * * *." (See Claim 8).

This result, achieved by the line contact against the chamber floor, is new, novel and commercially desirable. It is, we think a distinct contribution to the faucet art — one which would not be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art. See 35 U.S.C. § 103. Blish, Mize & Sillman Hardware Co. v. Time Savor Tools, 10 Cir., 236 F.2d 913; Consolidated Electrodynamics Corp. v. Midwestern Instruments, 10 Cir., 260 F.2d 811. We agree to the validity of Claims...