Hueter v. Compco Corporation
| Decision Date | 03 February 1950 |
| Docket Number | No. 10004.,10004. |
| Citation | 179 F.2d 416 |
| Parties | HUETER v. COMPCO CORPORATION. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
George E. Kirk, Toledo, Ohio, Franklin M. Warden, Chicago, Ill., Fred S. Lockwood, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff-appellant.
Horace Dawson, Dugald S. McDougall, Chicago, Ill., for defendant-appellee.
Before MAJOR, Chief Judge, and KERNER and SWAIM, Circuit Judges.
This action was brought to restrain alleged infringement of a design patent, to restrain unfair trade practices and to recover damages.
The lower court found that the patent was invalid for lack of invention and that the defendant's device did not infringe plaintiff's patent. Judgment was entered accordingly and from that judgment the plaintiff brings this appeal.
The patent, Design Patent No. 152475, covers the design for an "article holding guard or the like" under a single claim which reads: "The ornamental design for an article holding guard or the like as shown and described." The drawing of the patented design was a straight, plain and unadorned front bar, the length of which is approximately seven times its width, with straight wings of the same width at each end which were a little less than one-fourth the length of the front bar. The wings extend back from the front bar at an angle of about 45 degrees. No ornamentation of any kind is shown on either the front bar or on the wings. The only possible claim for the design being considered as ornamental must be found in the proportion of the length and width of the front bar and wings and in the angle at which the wings extend backward from the front bar.
The use of the device, which plaintiff claims is protected by his design patent, is as a guard or holder to keep articles from sliding off a flat horizontal surface. Plaintiff markets his products under the trade-mark "Dashpal" and trades under the trade name "Dashpal Company", but he insists that this is just an arbitrary name since the device can be used on any flat surface. The record leaves no doubt, however, that the principal use of the device is on the dashboard of an automobile as a guard or container for small articles.
The court below found that The court, therefore, held that the defendant's patent was invalid for lack of invention and that even if said patent were treated as valid it was not infringed by defendant's device.
Plaintiff's action was dismissed on the merits for want of equity insofar as it sought relief for the infringement of plaintiff's patent.
The statute covering design patents, 35 U.S.C.A. § 73, provides that: "Any person who has invented any new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture, not known or used by others in this country before his invention thereof * * *" may obtain a patent therefor.
The purpose of the design patent law is to promote the decorative arts and to stimulate the exercise of inventive faculty in improving the appearance of articles of manufacture. Applied Arts Corporation v. Grand Rapids Metalcraft Corporation, 6 Cir., 67 F.2d 428; In re Eppinger, 94 F. 2d 401, 25 C.C.P.A., Patents, 843.
A patentable design must be new, original and ornamental. To entitle one to the monopoly of the use of such a design it must demonstrate an exercise of inventive genius. The exercise of the skill of only an ordinary designer is not sufficient. S. Dresner & Son, Inc., v. Doppelt, 7 Cir., 120 F.2d 50, Smith v. Whitman Saddle Co., 148 U.S. 674, 13 S.Ct. 768, 770, 37 L.Ed. 606.
In the latter case Mr. Chief Justice Fuller said, "The exercise of the inventive or originative faculty is required, and a person cannot be permitted to select an existing form, and simply put it to a new use, any more than he can be permitted to take a patent for the mere double use of a machine."
The courts have many times held that a purely functional design or one dictated by mechanical or functional requirements is not patentable. Circle S Products Co. v. Powell Products, Inc., 7 Cir., 174 F.2d 562; Smith v. Dental Products Co., Inc., 7 Cir., 140 F.2d 140, 153.
So in the instant case we are of the...
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...for the Court in H. W. Gossard Co. v. J. C. Penney Co., 7 Cir., 1962, 304 F.2d 515, 517-518: `This Court stated in Hueter v. Compco Corp., 7 Cir., 179 F.2d 416, at p. 418: "In a close case evidence of the commercial success may tip the scales in determining whether an improvement amounts to......
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