Union Special Mach Co. v. Maimin

Decision Date12 May 1908
Docket Number26,October Sessions,1904.
PartiesUNION SPECIAL MACH. CO. v. MAIMIN.
CourtU.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Joseph C. Fraley and C. L. Sturtevant, for complainants.

Hector T. Fenton, for defendant.

ARCHBALD District Judge. [1]

The patent which the defendant is charged with infringing is g is for a thread-controlling device for sewing machines, designed to better regulate the feeding of the thread and particularly to prevent its breaking when an extra thickness of material is encountered by reason of seams or otherwise.

'Heretofore,' says the inventor, 'in the use of such devices, in machines employing a looper in connection with the needles when sewing more than a certain predetermined thickness of leather or other material the strain upon the thread, as the looper backs out over the point, becomes too great, and the stitch either becomes too tight, or the thread breaks. Furthermore, with devices such as heretofore used, the thread may have too much slack at a certain portion of the movement of the machine, and not enough at another. ' To obviate these difficulties, instead of a single thread eyelet on the needle arm, which by experience has been found particularly open to objection, two such eyelets are employed, one located at the point of the arm which rises highest in the upward movement of it, and the other at a point in front or advance of this, towards the needle bar, both being in between a stationary eyelet on the frame, which receives the thread as it comes from the tension device, and the customary eyelet on the top of the needle bar. The operation is this: In rising to the highest position above the frame, the rear of the two eyelets produces an angle or crook in the thread between the eyelet on the frame and the forward eyelet on the needle arm and thus pulls off an extra quantity of thread, thereby giving a sufficient length to let the looper back out of the loop in the descending movement of the needle, the slack which would otherwise be left undisposed of being taken up in turn by the forward eyelet after the point of the looper is freed from the loop, the loop at the same time being drawn up against the material so as to make a tight stitch, all this being accomplished without any breaking strain. Or, in other words, if I may venture a somewhat free description, the extra thread is first pulled off by an angle or crook formed by the rear eyelet in the upward movement of the needle arm which by an ingenious adjustment is taken up by the forward eyelet in the downward movement, the crook or slack being transferred from the one to the other, the thread from the eyelet on the frame, through the rear eyelet on the needle arm, to the forward eyelet at its lowest position, in the end forming a straight line. This arrangement is especially useful in double or twin needle machines for which the complainants formerly held a patent which has now expired

The defendant is a dealer in secondhand machines which he buys in the market, and, after making any needed repairs, sells again. He so bought and disposed of the two machines as to which infringement is charged, supplying and putting on them the rear eyelet which was lacking in each, which he purchased for 10 cents from the complainants' Philadelphia agent. Eyelets of this general character are found on almost every style of machine, and, except as it was understood that they were to be used to repair one of the complainants' machines, nothing was said by the defendant at the time of purchasing those in question to indicate the use to which they were to be put. It is contended by the complainants that, in equipping these machines in the way he did, the defendant was guilty of infringement; the machines being thereby effectively supplied with the thread- controlling device of the patent which they otherwise lacked. To this two answers are made: (1) While the defendant put on the second eyelet by which this was brought about, he did not do it initially, but simply by way of repair; and (2) that, even if he did, the complainants themselves, by their agent, supplied the means for doing so, thus impliedly licensing it. The records kept by the complainants show that, when the machines in question left the company's hands, they were single-needle machines, on which a needle controller is not put because there is no particular necessity for it. Some one since that time has therefore changed them to two-needle machines, and put on thread controllers to match. And whether this in the first instance was done by the defendant or some one else is not material; the infringement of a patent initially by one person giving no sanction to another to repeat or continue it. No doubt, within certain bounds, a patented article may be repaired without making the...

To continue reading

Request your trial
9 cases
  • Aro Manufacturing Co v. Convertible Top Replacement Co
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • June 8, 1964
    ...essential part of the patented combination, contributing by so much to the perpetuation of the infringement.' Union Special Mach. Co. v. Maimin, 161 F. 748, 750 (C.C.E.D.Pa.1908), aff'd, 165 F. 440 (C.A.3d Cir. Accord, Remington Rand Business Serv., Inc., v. Acme Card System Co., 71 F.2d 62......
  • Ruth v. Stearns-Roger Mfg. Co., 9178.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 10th Circuit. United States District Court of Colorado
    • December 23, 1935
    ...or renewing a patented combination by furnishing some of the needed parts contributes to such infringement. Union Special Machinery Co. v. Maimin (C.C.Pa.) 161 F. 748; Thomson-Houston Electric Co. v. Ohio Brass Co. (C.C.A.6) 80 F. 712, 723; Bullock Elec. & Mfg. Co. v. Westinghouse Elec. & M......
  • Fonar Corp. v. General Elec. Co., CV 92-4196.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 2nd Circuit. United States District Court (Eastern District of New York)
    • September 30, 1995
    ...device in patented form has come lawfully into the hands of the person for whom it is repaired.'" Id. (quoting Union Special Mach. Co. v. Maimin, 161 F. 748, 750 (C.C.E.D.Pa.), aff'd, 165 F. 440 (C.A. 3d Cir. 1908)). GE was not liable for direct infringement on sales occurring prior to Sept......
  • Nuance Commc'ns Inc v. Tellme Networks Inc, Civ. No. 06-105-SLR.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 3th Circuit. United States District Court (Delaware)
    • April 20, 2010
    ...repaired without making the repairer an infringer, ... but not where it is done for one who is.” Id. (citing Union Special Mach. Co. v. Maimin, 161 F. 748, 750 (C.C.E.D.Pa.1908), aff'd, 165 F. 440 (3d Cir.1908)). This is so because the repair of an infringing item “perpetuates the infringin......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT