Royal Patent Corp. v. Monarch Tool & Mfg. Co.

• Decision Date: 24 April 1953
• Docket Number: No. 11636.,11636.
• Citation: 203 F.2d 299
• Parties: ROYAL PATENT CORP. et al. v. MONARCH TOOL & MFG. CO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

203 F.2d 299 (1953)

ROYAL PATENT CORP. et al. v. MONARCH TOOL & MFG. CO.

No. 11636.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

April 24, 1953.

Clarence E. Threedy, Chicago, Ill., Bernard Savin and Benjamin M. Becker, Chicago, Ill., Frank E. O'Gallagher, Cincinnati, Ohio, on brief, for appellants.

J. Warren Kinney, Jr., Cincinnati, Ohio, for appellee.

Before ALLEN, McALLISTER and MILLER, Circuit Judges.

ALLEN, Circuit Judge.

This is a suit for infringement of patent No. 2532205 for coin selector issued to W. J. Summers, November 28, 1950. Appellant Royal Patent Corporation, an Illinois corporation, is assignee and owner of the patent and appellant A. B. T. Manufacturing Corporation, an Illinois corporation, is licensee. The appellee is an Ohio corporation which manufactures and sells coin selectors alleged to infringe the patent.

The Summers patent relates to "new and useful improvements in coin selectors of the type * * * constructed for use in connection with various apparatuses" such as "vending machines and coin-controlled amusement apparatuses." A principal object of the invention as stated in the specifications is "to separate certain spurious coins or tokens from genuine coins." The claims of the patent read as follows:

"1. A coin selector of the class described comprising an enclosure having means for connection to a stationary support in a laterally tilted position with respect to a vertical plane and having therein a downwardly inclined coin receiving pathway tilted laterally with respect to said vertical plane, a rejection pathway having connection and reversely inclined with respect to the receiving pathway and likewise tilted laterally with respect to said vertical plane and a coin acceptance pathway having connection with said receiving pathway at the point of connection between said receiving pathway and said rejection pathway and reversely inclined with respect to said receiving pathway and extending parallel with the rejection pathway, deflecting means at said point of connection for deflecting acceptable coins into said acceptance pathway from said receiving pathway, a side wall of said enclosure providing an elongated substantially offset recess communicating with said pathway and extending substantially parallel to and at one side of said receiving pathway and providing at one end thereof an abutment, a track secured to said wall below said recess and on which acceptable coins gravitate through said receiving pathway into said acceptance pathway, the distance between said track and the top longitudinal edge portion of the recess being greater than the diameter of a non-acceptable coin to permit said non-acceptable coin to tilt by gravity into said recess for gravitation upon said track into striking engagement with said abutment for deflecting said non-acceptable coin into said rejection pathway.

"2. The combination substantially set forth in claim 1 wherein the top longitudinal edge of said offset recess and said track diverge in the direction of gravitation of coins on said track."

The District Court held that the Summers patent does not embody patentable matter over Hall patent No. 794620 issued in 1905 and Ralston patent No. 847438 issued in 1907, which were not before the Patent Office when the application for the Summers patent was considered and allowed. The presumption of validity therefore does not exist. O'Leary v. Liggett Drug Co., 6 Cir., 150 F.2d 656, 664; Lempco Products, Inc., v. Timken-Detroit Axle Co., 6 Cir., 110 F.2d 307, 310; Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. v. Toledo Railway Company, 6 Cir., 172 F. 371.

We think the judgment of the District Court was correct.

As disclosed in the patent in suit the essential elements of the Summers coin selector are a tilted wall, an inclined track secured thereto, an elongated recess in the tilted wall above the inclined track and an abutment on the lower end of the elongated recess. As found by the District Court

"the distance between the track and the top

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