Edison Mfg. Co. v. Gladstone

• Decision Date: 21 December 1903
• Citation: 58 A. 391
• Parties: EDISON MFG. CO. v. GLADSTONE.
• Court: New Jersey Court of Chancery

58 A. 391

EDISON MFG. CO.

v. GLADSTONE.

Court Of Chancery of New Jersey.

Dec. 21, 1903.

Bill by the Edison Manufacturing Company against one Gladstone. On order to show cause why an injunction should not issue. Injunction granted.

R. H. McCarter, Atty. Gen., for complainant.

Cortlandt Parker, Jr., and Louis T. Raegner, for defendant.

PITNEY, V. C. The order to show cause in this matter was advised November 13, 1903, and was returnable November 30, 1903. It was adjourned to December 14, and again to December 21, 1903. On each of the last-named two days affidavits were filed, exhibits were presented, and arguments made. On those exhibits and affidavits, and without giving any reason, except such as dropped from my lips from time to time during the argument, I advised an order for partial restraint, which I supposed at the time was in substance consented to by defendant. In that I must assume that I was mistaken, since the defendant has appealed, and now asks me to give in writing my reasons for the information of the Court of Errors and Appeals. Under the circumstances, I find it difficult to do this, since I have not now before me the exhibits, consisting of physical objects not easy to describe.

The complainant, Edison Manufacturing Company, as the assignee and successor of Thomas A. Edison, claims to have been for many years engaged in the manufacture of electric batteries, and the constituent parts thereof, among which are certain plates of zinc, and also certain other plates (which I should call cakes) of copper oxide. These plates are separately attached in a pendent position to the under side of a metallic disc, which forms the cover of a jar containing caustic soda, or potash, into which the plates —two of zinc and one of copper oxide—are submerged, and when the upper ends of these plates are connected by a wire, no matter how long, the corrosive action of the caustic soda upon the two plates creates a current of electricity used for a great many purposes and for which there is a great demand. The complainant claims to be the patented proprietor and manufacturer of a particular frame as a mode of holding the copper plate in its position, which, as well as the general design of the lid and copper plate holder, is said to be the result of a patent called the Lelande patent. The complainant makes no claim to a patent for the use of the zinc and copper plates. What he does claim is that Mr. Edison, in the first instance, and the complainant, as his successor in interest, has adopted a peculiar form and shape for the two sets of plates, especially as to the copper plates (which last exactly fit the frame of his battery) and which have come to be known in the trade as "Edison's Plates." The zinc plates are oblong, being about five or six inches in length, some three inches in width, and about one-fourth of an inch in thickness, and are suspended from the lid by a metallic grip of a particular shape. The copper plate, or cake, is a little thicker than the zinc, hut much shorter, so that two copper plates are about the same length as one zinc plate, and the two copper plates of identical size and shape are hung, the one above the other, between two zinc plates, and are held in their proper position by a metallic frame, with grooves in which the copper plates are fitted by having their two sides and lower ends beveled at a particular angle, the upper ends being left square. There is no particular charm about these shapes, but complainant alleges that they have been so long manufactured by complainant, and used in that particular shape by the public, that they are known as "Edison's Plates," and no other manufacturer of that article has ever adopted that shape. In this connection it is proper to state that the result of the action of the acid is to destroy rapidly these plates, and it is necessary to renew them frequently, and for that purpose the owner and user of the battery makes use of the most convenient supply store where extra plates, or, as they are called, "renewals," are kept for sale. The allegation of the complainant is that the defendant, Gladstone, was for many years in its employ in the manufacture of these batteries and renewal plates, and thereby became familiar with the mode of manufacturing the same, and, of course, had the particular shape before him, and, besides, the plates themselves could be purchased at any supply store. These facts are fully sustained by the affidavits. It further appears by the affidavits, and is admitted, that the defendant, in June, 1903, in the city of Newark, engaged in the business of the...