Schreyer v. Casco Products Corp.

• Decision Date: 08 August 1951
• Docket Number: Docket 22021.,No. 288,288
• Citation: 190 F.2d 921
• Parties: SCHREYER et al. v. CASCO PRODUCTS CORP. et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

190 F.2d 921 (1951)

SCHREYER et al. v. CASCO PRODUCTS CORP. et al.

No. 288, Docket 22021.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued June 4, 1951.

Decided August 8, 1951.

Dean, Fairbanks & Hirsch, New York City, David S. Day, Bridgeport, Conn., for plaintiffs, cross-appellants; Morris Hirsch, New York City, Thomas E. Scofield, Kansas City, Mo., Charles S. Brody and Arthur C. Williams, Bridgeport, Conn., of counsel.

Goldstein and Peck, Bridgeport, Conn., for defendant-appellant; Stephen H. Philbin, New York City, David Goldstein, Arthur A. March and Bernard Glazer, Bridgeport, Conn., of counsel.

Before CHASE, CLARK and FRANK, Circuit Judges.

CHASE, Circuit Judge.

United States Patent No. 2,475,572 was granted to Edward P. Schreyer, a resident of Connecticut, on July 5, 1949, for an "Electric Steam Iron." Rival Manufacturing Company, a Missouri corporation, is the exclusive licensee under that patent. These two as plaintiffs brought this suit against Casco Products Corporation, a Connecticut corporation, and its president Joseph H. Cone, a Connecticut resident. The complaint charged both the infringement of the above patent and unfair competition consisting in the use of information which had been confidentially disclosed to the defendants during negotiations concerning the granting of a license to them. The complaint was dismissed as to defendant Cone, who is no longer a party. Claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, and 14 of the patent were held valid and infringed. Claim 18 was held invalid and it, together with claims 19, 20, 22, 23, and 24, which were not herein charged to be infringed, was promptly disclaimed. Claim 8 was held valid but not infringed. Diversity of citizenship being lacking, the court held that it had jurisdiction of the cause of action for unfair competition by virtue of 28 U.S.C. § 1338 (b). The plaintiffs have appealed from that part of the judgment which held claim 8 not infringed and denied an injunction to restrain future unfair competition. The defendant corporation has appealed from that part of the judgment holding patent claims valid and infringed and from that part holding it guilty of unfair competition.

The electric steam iron of the patent is a modern adaptation of the old manually operated flat iron long used in homes and elsewhere for ironing fabric material of various kinds. It may be used as a "dry" iron, but is especially designed for use where it is desirable to moisten the material while it is being ironed. This the iron does by generating steam and discharging it through holes in its base plate onto the fabric.

Such an ironer was by no means new. Two kinds of steam irons have long been in use. One of them had a built-in water reservoir from which small amounts of water dropped to the heated base plate and immediately turned to steam which found its way to the fabric. The other, of which the patent in suit is an example, had a closed built-in boiler in which water was heated to its boiling point by the resistance coils heating the base plate. The resulting steam, when sufficient pressure was attained, was carried to an opening, or openings, in the base plate from which it escaped to the fabric in the desired quantity. A release valve prevented the steam from exceeding the desired, and of course the safe, pressure. Such an iron required an opening through which water could be put into the boiler and a closure, usually a threaded cap, for the opening, and the combination of these elements with others which have long been found in hand-operated flat irons is shown in the prior art. See Patent No. 2,178,512 which was granted to Edward P. Schreyer on October 31, 1939, and which was held invalid for lack of invention in Schreyer v. Chicago Motorcoil Corp., 7 Cir., 118 F.2d 852; Patent No. 2,188,011 which was granted to F. A. Miller on January 23, 1940; Patent No. 2,279,215 which was granted to H. Theilgaard on April 7, 1942; Patent No. 2,309,427 granted to F. E. Wolcott on January 26, 1943; Patent No. 2,322,103 granted to B. Altman et al., on June 15, 1943; and Patent No. 2,328,124 granted to H. E. Bremer on August 31, 1943. But all these earlier irons left something to be desired. In each the filler opening was so small that a funnel, or its equivalent, was needed to pour water into it. The iron had to be refilled frequently and to avoid a loss of operating time during cooling, it was necessary to fill it while it was hot. This required caution, if the boiler was hot and empty, to prevent flash steam and boiling water from spouting through the filler opening, and the filler plug might be so hot as to require the use of some shielding material between it and the operator's hand. The threads on the plug or the opening, or both, might become corroded, and the corrosion might cause the plug to stick so that the operator could not remove it manually.

The patent in suit has apparently disclosed a combination which does away with these handicaps by putting the handle of the iron on a separate plate hinged to the main body of the flat iron at the rear and held in position when closed by a turn latch at the front. The filler opening to the boiler is placed under the hinged cover and given a mouth wide enough to allow water to be poured in readily without the use of a funnel. The opening is a conical tube tapered toward the bottom with baffles inside the boiler to prevent the spouting effect of flash steam. The closure, mounted on the under side of the hinged plate, is a spring-held plug, ringed with suitable sealing material, which enters the filler opening when the hinged plate is closed. The leverage provided by the hinged plate enables the operator to press the plug into sealing position against the pressure of the spring and the latching of the plate holds it there. As the spring is not completely depressed, the plug serves as a safety valve by lifting under excessive pressure in the boiler and allowing the boiler to "blow off" until its pressure falls below the spring pressure.

None of the elements comprising the patented combination is new in the art. A flat iron with a cover plate hinged at the back and latched at the front is a prominent feature of Goodwin's Patent No. 75,150, granted March 3, 1868, and a similar hinged cover plate is shown in Gray's...