Mantle Lamp Co of America v. Aluminum Products Co
| Decision Date | 24 May 1937 |
| Docket Number | No. 765,765 |
| Citation | 301 U.S. 544,81 L.Ed. 1277,57 S.Ct. 837 |
| Parties | MANTLE LAMP CO. OF AMERICA v. ALUMINUM PRODUCTS CO |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. George I. Haight and W. H. F. Millar, both of Chicago, Ill., for petitioner.
Mr. Wm. N. Cromwell, of Chicago, Ill., for respondent.
This is a suit for infringement of claims 1, 3 to 14, inclusive, 17, 18, and 21 to 24, inclusive, of the Blair patent, No. 1,435,199 for a heat-insulated receptacle. The District Court held all of the claims invalid by reason of lack of invention, prior invention, anticipation, as being for an aggregation and as involving only mechanical skill. That court further limited the claims to the particular structure disclosed in the application, and, so limited, held them not infringed. It also found that unreasonable delay in filing disclaimers voided all the claims. The Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a decree dismissing the bill.1 We granted certiorari because of a conflict of decision.
In 1927 the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held all of the claims here in suit, except claim 3, bad for want of invention.2 In 1931 the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held claim 1 valid and infringed 'without prejudice to any rights of the plaintiff under any other claim.'3 In as much as the conflict is limited to claim 1 we restrict our consideration to that claim. The claim is:
'A heat-insulated vessel of the non-vacuum type having an outer jacket of non-frangible material, an inner container of frangible material, said inner container being bonded to and pendently supported from said jacket, and heat-insulating and shock-absorbing means surrounding said container for limiting oscillations of said container while permitting expansion thereof by changes of temperature.'
Over thirty years ago containers for keeping their contents hot or cold by the use of a vacuum came into general use. It was found impractical to make such containers of a capacity in excess of one quart or perhaps two quarts. For some years thereafter there were no satisfactory insulated containers of larger size. In 1919 Blair filed application for a patent for a heat insulated receptacle of the non-vacuum type, his object being economically to produce relatively large receptacles which would be sanitary and easy to clean, to improve their insulation to minimize the transmission of shocks to the inner container which was of glass or other fragile substance. As disclosed by the claim in question he proposed to make a jug or pail-like container the outer jacket of which would be of iron or similar rigid material. Within this there was an inner container of glass (or, as in the commercial article, of earthenware) bonded to and pendently supported from the outer jacket. Between the inner and outer members comminuted material, such as ground cork, was to be inserted for insulating the...
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