Simmons Co. v. Superior Felt & Bedding Co., 6886.
| Decision Date | 18 November 1939 |
| Docket Number | No. 6886.,6886. |
| Citation | 107 F.2d 536 |
| Parties | SIMMONS CO. v. SUPERIOR FELT & BEDDING CO. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
George I. Haight, Cyril A. Soans, and William E. Anderson, all of Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff-appellant.
C. Paul Parker, Alwin F. Pitzner, and Lincoln B. Smith, all of Chicago, Ill., for defendant-appellee.
Before SPARKS, MAJOR, and TREANOR, Circuit Judges.
Appellant charged appellee with infringement of United States Patents to Gail, Nos. 1,677,232 and 1,915,659, which had been assigned to appellant. The former patent was issued July 17, 1928, on an application filed October 3, 1927, and the latter was issued June 27, 1933, on an application filed February 15, 1930. The defenses were invalidity and non-infringement. The District Court held that the first patent was valid but not infringed. It held the second patent invalid and did not pass upon the question of infringement. From that decree this appeal is prosecuted.
Claim 1 of the first patent was in issue. It is a method claim and relates to the manufacture of mattresses or cushions in which the side edge of the mattress, or like article, is equipped with a strip of ticking disposed more or less in a vertical plane so as to give what is generally described as a box effect. The side and end strips of ticking are commonly called a boxing. With respect to the first patent, Gail's object was to provide a mattress having a box with means for resiliently maintaining said boxing in a stretched, vertical condition, and to prevent bulging thereof outwardly; to provide a mattress and boxing therefor which would be durable and maintain its desired shape and position during the life of the mattress or like article. These objects he claimed to have accomplished by devising a new method of connecting the upper and lower edges of the spring core directly to the boxing, so as to eliminate excess thickness of padding between the boxing and the spring construction, thereby causing the springs to act directly on the boxing by stretching and maintaining the same in a vertical position at all times. By such method he also claimed to have effected a seal between the boxing and the outer edges of the spring core so as to prevent any part of the filling at the top and bottom of the mattress from working or leaking into the space between the boxing and the spring core. He claimed to have accomplished these objects by tieing the outer rows of springs to the boxing, as a result of which the boxing was always stretched vertically and was free from bulging. Preferably the outer row of springs was placed under a slight compression so as to insure a positive stretching effect at all times.
Claim 1 is as follows:
"The improvement in the art of manufacturing a mattress having springs incorporated in the filling adjacent the edge of the mattress for maintaining the verticality of the boxing, which consists in making the boxing, connecting the springs to the inner face of said boxing, completing the formation of the body or filler of the mattress, applying the horizontally extending portion of the mattress casing and then sewing the edge of the boxing thereto."
The sides and ends of the mattress which comprise the box are made of a three-ply structure. The outer ply, which is referred to as the boxing strip, is preferably made either of the same material as the top and bottom ticks of the mattress, or of a material which properly matches them. The inner ply, called the liner strip, may be of ordinary cotton sheeting. The middle ply is of fibrous filling material such as felted cotton. This three-ply structure is referred to as quilted boxing and is generally made up in large quantities in advance to be used as needed in the construction or assembly of the complete mattresses or cushions.
To assemble the mattress, the core or body, comprising the strips of spring-filled pockets assembled and connected together, is placed on a suitable table or support, and a length of boxing strip is applied around the outside of the core. The inner liner strip is then connected to the outer row of springs by means of ties which may be of any type, but the preferred type employed is a long length of suitable cord which by means of a needle is hitched or knotted around the top of the hemmed edge of the inner strip and the top coil of the spring in the outer row.
After the outer rows of springs have been thus connected to the edges of the boxing around the outer edge of the mattress, the usual upper and lower layers of padding are applied, after which the edges of the tick strip of the boxing are sewed to the adjacent edges of the upper and lower tick parts, after which the main body of the mattress is tufted in the usual manner. In the case of a reversible mattress, both sides are constructed in the same manner as last above stated.
Appellee's mattresses embody an inner spring structure or core having on both its top and bottom sides a layer of padding material over which a sheet of ticking is placed, the edges of which are sewed to the outer fabric of the boxing. Between the boxing and the border wire of the spring structure there is interposed a pad which is formed of a fabric tube filled with felt material, the pad being folded longitudinally upon itself and then attached to the boxing by stitches which pass through both folds of the pad and entirely through the boxing where the stitches appear on the outside of the mattress. The two-fold lobes, formed by the folding of the pad, project downwardly and are utilized to perform several functions. They are passed around the border wire of the spring structure and their edges are clipped together by metal clips so that the border wire is completely enclosed between the lobes which form a cushion about the wire to prevent it from being easily felt through the boxing. These lobes also serve as links to connect the boxing to the spring structure. The upper filled portions of the pad occupy the corner portion of the mattress adjacent the juncture of the boxing, and the top ticking serves to fill out and re-enforce this corner. Being anchored, this pad cannot work out of place and permit the corner parts of the mattress to get out of shape.
The inner fabric lining of the appellee's boxing, as originally manufactured and sold, was found by appellee to serve no mechanical purpose, that is to say, it was not used in any respect as a means of fastening or connecting the boxing to anything, and it was therefore eliminated. The connector pads in appellee's mattress were fastened by stitches passing entirely through the boxing. This was found necessary to give sufficient strength for anchorage to the stitches; especially was this true after the inner lining of the boxing was eliminated.
Appellee contends that the first patent is invalid in view of the following prior art: Farrow and Goodman, No. 1,205,135; Hale, No. 854,161; Hampton, Nos. 935,844, and 958,116; Burton, No. 977,508; Burrows, No. 1,279,510; Lang and Van Derveer, No. 1,336,525; and Fuld, No. 1,576,738. It is unnecessary to examine these references in detail. It is not denied that Gail was working in a very narrow field, and it is obvious that his accomplishments quite closely approached the realm of mechanical skill.
This patent, however, bears the presumption of validity, and a study of these references does not convince us that the claim is invalid when strictly limited to its express terms. That is to say, it must be so interpreted as to require the...
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