Paramount Industries v. Solar Products Corp., 165
| Decision Date | 29 January 1951 |
| Docket Number | Docket 21864.,No. 165,165 |
| Parties | PARAMOUNT INDUSTRIES, Inc. v. SOLAR PRODUCTS CORP. et al. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
George E. Middleton, of New York City (Pennie, Edmonds, Morton & Barrows, of New York City, on the brief), for defendants-appellants.
Laurence B. Dodds, of Little Neck, N. Y. (Harry J. Halperin, of New York City, on the brief), for plaintiff-appellee.
Before CHASE, CLARK, and FRANK, Circuit Judges.
Defendants appeal from an interlocutory judgment for an injunction and an accounting which holds valid and infringed Claims 1, 2, and 3 of United States Letters Patent No. 2,435,164 for a "Fluorescent Hand Lamp" issued on January 27, 1948, to plaintiff as assignee of Alfonse D. Sobel. Although this patent has been fully sustained by the district court, D.C.E.D. N.Y., 93 F.Supp. 331, we are bound to say that in our judgment it is peculiarly wanting in that display of inventive genius now required by the Supreme Court, as illustrated by such cases as Sinclair & Carroll Co. v. Interchemical Corp., 325 U.S. 327, 65 S.Ct. 1143, 89 L.Ed. 1644, and Jungersen v. Ostby & Barton Co., 335 U.S. 560, 69 S.Ct. 269, 93 L.Ed. 235, or in its latest expression, Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Supermarket Equipment Corp., 340 U.S. 147, 71 S.Ct. 127. So, too, while it perhaps bears a superficial resemblance to such a recent case of our own as Bostitch, Inc., v. Precision Staple Corp., 2 Cir., 178 F.2d 332, being a like simplification and combination of well-known elements, it cannot match the Bostitch in the simplicity and effectiveness of the product. If in none of the cited cases was invention to be found, then it would seem clear that a patent such as this has little chance. In short, it appears to us an unusually flimsy patent. Plaintiff attempts to stress a presumption of validity from the Patent Office action particularly because the examiner considered and cited four of the five prior patents now relied on by defendants to show invalidity; but these facts show only the more what Supreme Court Justices are now openly suggesting, namely, that the standard in the Patent Office has become lower than is justified under present legal authority.
A fluorescent hand lamp is of course a useful article for camps, cellars, medical and factory use, indeed for any situation where quick and efficient illumination is needed without resort to ordinary power lines. But that is not the invention claimed here. Involved herein is only the box, the purpose of the invention being to supply a container which could be easily taken apart for the replacement of dry batteries and easily reassembled. As the patent itself states:
The article which the plaintiff has manufactured and sold under the patent is called "Totelite." Its receptacle does come apart and go together easily and simply. It is U-shaped in cross-section, having sides, back, and a flanged top and flanged bottom. But the part particularly stressed is that which forms the bulge of the U and is actually the reflector unit and its cover in combination assembly. Thus at this end of the lamp there is a forwardly convex resilient translucent cover protecting the fluorescent tube which is held in place against a forwardly concave reflector. The reflector has longitudinal seating grooves or flanges which engage like grooves in the side walls formed by Z-straps welded to these walls. When assembled (easily and quickly because of the simplicity of the operation) cover and reflector are held firmly in place to perform their useful functions. This is the asserted heart of the invention and the substance of the three claims — as set forth in somewhat more extensive detail in the opinion below, 93 F. Supp. at pages 332, 333. This the plaintiff itself stresses in its brief in saying that "there stands out one essential feature of the Sobel invention which is lacking in all of the references, namely, the convex resilient plastic front member" which, as it goes on to assert, co-operates with the other lamp elements to perform the three functions of (1) protecting the lamp and reflector against breakage and dirt; (2) transmitting, in co-operation with the concave reflector, the light from the fluorescent tube in a wide-angle beam; and (3) when retained in place by the top and bottom flanges of the receptacle, resiliently pressing the unitary reflector and tube support assembly against the seating grooves of the side walls "to provide a snugly fitting unit which will not rattle or jar out of place in use."
It will be be seen that these are at most refinements of assembly in the...
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