Slagboom v. Van Vlaanderen Machine Company, Civ. A. No. 729-49.

• Decision Date: 05 April 1956
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 729-49.
• Citation: 139 F. Supp. 785
• Parties: Louis SLAGBOOM, Plaintiff, v. VAN VLAANDEREN MACHINE COMPANY, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

139 F. Supp. 785

Louis SLAGBOOM, Plaintiff, v. VAN VLAANDEREN MACHINE COMPANY, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 729-49.

United States District Court D. New Jersey.

April 5, 1956.

Bernard G. Goldstein, Paterson, N. J., Howard P. King, New York City, for plaintiff.

Peter Hofstra, by Joseph V. Fumagalli, Robert F. Beck, Paterson, N. J., Harry Sommers, Newark, N. J., for defendant.

MEANEY, District Judge.

Findings of Fact

1. Plaintiff is a citizen and resident of the State of New Jersey and the patentee and owner of U. S. Letters Patent No. 2,201,000, application for which was filed August 8, 1939, issued to plaintiff on May 14, 1940 for "Improvement in Tentering Clips."

2. Defendant is a corporation incorporated under the laws of the State of New Jersey.

3. This action is brought by plaintiff, alleging infringement of his patent by defendant. 16 Stat. 207, July 8, 1870, § 60, now 35 U.S.C.A. § 288. Defendant denies infringement and counterclaims for declaratory judgment of invalidity under the Federal Declaratory Judgments Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2201.

4. The patent contains a single claim reading as follows:

"A tenter clip including fixed structure providing a space open laterally to receive the cloth and a horizontal cloth-supporting surface at the lower side of said space provided with an aperture, a depending jaw member pivoted in said structure above said surface on a horizontal axis and movable outwardly against cloth positioned on said surface and reversely, said structure having a fixed pivot parallel with said axis and above said surface and arranged inward of said member, and an up-and-down-movable feeler member confined by the pivot to a single arcuate path concentric with said pivot and arranged to enter and recede from said aperture, one member having a bearing whose axis is parallel with the first axis and arranged to stand in substantially the same horizontal plane as the pivot when the feeler member, supporting the jaw member, rests on the cloth overlying said aperture and the other member having a slot receiving the bearing and formed to extend approximately horizontally when the feeler member so rests on the cloth and one side of which for substantially the full extent of the slot is straight and the other side of which is the side against which the bearing bears when said members descend without cloth present under the feeler member and has a portion thereof which is displaced from each end of the slot diverted and forming a recess providing a detent shoulder for the bearing and the portion thereof which is relatively between the recess and the jaw member substantially parallel for its full extent with the first-named slide." (Emphasis supplied).

5. Tentering clips are fashioned in a series making up a continuous chain, the shape of which may be described as an elongated "O". Two of these chains are mounted, one on each side of a rectangular table-like machine, and driven longitudinally by sprocket wheels. The machine is usually employed for tentering and dyeing cloth, and the clips rest on plates to function so as to grasp the selvage edge of the cloth on each side, holding it taut as it is introduced into the machine at one end, and to release the cloth at the other end. At the discharge end of the machine the sprocket wheel is fashioned so as to act as a cam to strike an arm on the clip, pushing this arm outwardly. This movement acts to release the jaw which has held the cloth through the work-performing run. At this point the object is to hold the jaw away from the plate upon which the cloth and jaw rest in order to keep the jaw from chattering on the plate during the return run and thereby prevent dulling of the blade of the jaw.

At the intake end of the machine a cam again strikes the arm of the clip, pushing it outwardly, and releases the jaw; also, a forked member of the arm, having a bearing projecting from it, lifts a feeler by moving in a slot fashioned in the feeler. The cloth which is introduced into the clip now sits on the plate mentioned above. When the arm is released so also is the jaw, and the bearing permits the feeler to drop onto the cloth. This releases the tension on the bearing which drops onto the lower edge of the slot in the feeler. The clip diverges slightly in its course from the cloth and as it does so the feeler falls into an aperture fitted into the plate. This action moves the bearing along the bottom edge of the slot, which action moves the jaw until it comes firmly in contact with the plate. The blade of the jaw catches the cloth on the plate and holds it firmly until it is again released at the discharge end of the machine.

6. Three prior patents are relied upon as being prior art and anticipatory of the patent in suit. These are: (1) Peterson patent, No. 1,907,090, issued May 2, 1933; (2) Williams patent, No. 1,984,616, issued Dec. 18, 1934; (3) Stelling patent, No. 1,799,446, issued April 7, 1931.

7. The Stelling and Williams patents show a one...