Western Electric Co. v. General Talking Pictures Corp.
| Citation | 91 F.2d 922 |
| Decision Date | 26 July 1937 |
| Docket Number | No. 425.,425. |
| Parties | WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, Inc., et al. v. GENERAL TALKING PICTURES CORPORATION. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) |
Merrell E. Clark and Henry R. Ashton, both of New York City (Charles Neave, F. T. Woodward, H. A. Pattison, and Edmund J. Driscoll, all of New York City, of counsel), for plaintiffs.
Darby & Darby and Zeiger & Berliner, all of New York City (Samuel E. Darby, Jr., and Ephraim Berliner, both of New York City, of counsel), for defendant.
Before MANTON, SWAN, and AUGUSTUS N. HAND, Circuit Judges.
Three suits for patent infringement were tried together and will be considered in one opinion. Western Electric Co. v. General Talking Pictures Corporation (D.C.) 16 F. Supp. 293. They involve the validity of decrees holding valid and infringed the Lowenstein patent No. 1,231,764 (claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7), for a negative grid bias, filed April 24, 1912; Mathes patent No. 1,426,754, for a grid biasing resistance, filed October 23, 1916 (claim 8); Arnold patent No. 1,329,283 (claims 7, 10, 13), for a power circuit, application filed May 28, 1914; Arnold patent No. 1,403,475 (claims 8, 9, 10), for resistance capacity coupling, application filed September 3, 1915; Arnold patent No. 1,448,550 (claims 1, 12), for definite input impedance, original application filed September 3, 1915, and November 2, 1915; Arnold patent No. 1,465,332 (claims 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11), for common plate supply, original application filed September 3, 1915. The Arnold patent No. 1,520,994 (claims 1 and 4), for gain control, original application filed September 3, 1915, was held invalid.
These patents relate to the vacuum tube amplifier. Infringement is not seriously disputed if the patents are valid. The defendant, in addition to the general claim of invalidity of each patent, defends upon the ground that the five Arnold patents are invalid because of public use by one of the plaintiffs, American Telephone & Telegraph Company, for more than two years before the particular applications, upon which the patents were issued, were filed. None of the five patents was in public use more than two years before the original applications were filed and the inventions of but three of them (Nos. 1,329,283, 1,448,550 and 1,520,994) were in such public use more than two years before the particular applications on which they were issued were filed. Such applications in each instance were copending with the original applications. Another defense is made, based on the claim that, because these amplifiers were purchased from the American Transformer Company, a licensee under the patents, although their sales were for private (amateur and experimental) use, infringement is avoided. The sales, however, to defendant were specifically for public or business use, that is, reproducing talking motion pictures in theaters for profit. Defendant leased the amplifiers it purchased to theater owners and operators.
A defense is made that there was an acquiescence by plaintiffs in the infringement which amounts to an estoppel.
The patents relate to combinations of three electrode vacuum tubes, and circuits and circuit elements useful for amplification. Each of the ordinary sounds of speech and music is composed of many different frequencies which must be accurately reproduced. The problem of amplification was to reproduce without distortion the input of the amplifier in its output greatly increased in energy. The patents in suit deal with one or more of the problems of this art of amplification which the patentee solved while the art was still young. The latest of the inventions was made in 1916 before amplification was commercially applied to such use as radio broadcast transmission and reception, public address systems and talking motion pictures. All inventions, except that of Lowenstein, were made by the inventors employed by the Western Electric Company.
There can be no earnest denial of the usefulness and commercial success of the inventions which were held valid below.
Lowenstein Patent.
The negative grid bias patent of Lowenstein solved the problem of distortion in the input circuit of the three-electrode tube, which was due to the flow of current in that circuit. He eliminated distortion producing current by providing means for biasing the grid negatively. We held this patent valid and infringed in Western Electric Co. v. Wallerstein, 60 F.(2d) 723. The same claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were there involved. The defendant admits that the prior art now relied upon was considered by us in the earlier decision. The arguments against the validity of the Lowenstein patent now appearing were considered there, and nothing is added here which warrants our overruling the decision there. We there considered the patents to Von Lieben (No. 1,038,910), Stone (No. 884,110), and De Forest (Nos. 841,347; 879,532; 995,126), and found that they did not anticipate this patent, and we concluded that Lowenstein made a contribution to the art of great merit and this patent was held valid and infringed. Its claims are infringed here.
Mathes Patent.
The grid biasing resistance patent to Mathes provided an improved means of obtaining the negative grid potential of the Lowenstein patent, which improved means had the advantage of eliminating the extra battery (c) employed by Lowenstein. He accomplished this by making the filament heating or "a" battery serve, in combination with a resistance placed in the filament heating circuit, the additional function of biasing the grid. Claim 8 defines the specific and useful series circuit combination of grid biasing resistance, filament heating battery and filament, the grid biasing resistance being included in the same circuit as the filament and filament heating battery.
As prior art the defendant refers to Arnold patents No. 1,129,942 and No. 1,129,943, and Colpitts patent No. 1,388,450. The Arnold patents do not disclose a grid biasing resistance in the filament heating circuit, as claimed in Mathes' claim 8, but employ a separate battery, as Lowenstein did, for providing the desired negative grid potential. But defendant argues that in the Arnold patents the filaments of the three tubes shown are all connected together in series so that all can be heated by the "a" battery, and says that the resistance (14) corresponds to Mathes' resistance. But that resistance is not in the filament heating circuit of the tube as Mathes' claim 8 provides. The purpose for which the resistance (14) is used in the Arnold patent is solely to act as a coupling between the output circuit of the first tube and the input circuit of the second tube. The effect on the grid of the second tube of the drop in potential across the resistance (14) is wholly erased by the positive potential of the plate battery (13) which is poled positively to the grid of the second tube. The grid of the second tube is not biased negatively by this resistance, but is so biased by Lowenstein's battery (11), poled negatively to the grid and included in the circuit for the same purpose as in Lowenstein's patent. The testimony shows that, if the Lowenstein battery (11) was not included in the circuit to buck out the effective positive voltage from the plate battery (13), the grid of the tube would be highly positive, notwithstanding the presence of the resistance (14). The grid would be at the same high and positive potential as the plate of the preceding tube, to which it would be directly connected were it not for Lowenstein's battery (11). Instead of teaching that Lowenstein's battery can be dispensed with, these Arnold patents teach that it should be used and they do not teach, as Mathes provides, that the filament heating battery can serve the additional function of biasing the grid if the biasing resistance is included in the series in the filament heating circuit.
Colpitts discloses a resistance not in the filament heating circuit. The resistance (64) tends to compensate out or eliminate the signal which it is the whole purpose of the amplifier to strengthen. This resistance has a deamplifying effect which makes it objectionable in an amplifier. Defendant has been unable to establish priority of invention. Mathes made a distinct contribution to the art in the particular series of arrangement of grid biasing resistance, filament and filament heating source; the invention is held valid.
This is a power circuit patent issued in 1920 upon an application filed July 30, 1918 which was a continuation of two earlier applications filed May 28, 1914. Arnold discloses in this patent the fundamentals of the tube's operations and how to construct it so as definitely to adapt it to utilization in circuits and with other circuit elements to give efficient results. He teaches how to produce tubes having the desired characteristics, and how to determine in what circuit arrangement the particular types of tubes should be used to do the work. The invention relates to thermionic amplifiers of the audion type, and its object is to provide a structure by which the certain desired characteristics of the amplifier may be secured at will and in an efficient manner. The principles of operation are referred to and four suggestions as to construction are made. They are: (a) to locate the grid as near as possible to the filament for all purposes; (b) space the plate widely from the filament for high voltage output and closely for high current output; (c) use a fine mesh grid for high voltage output and a coarse mesh grid for high current output, and (d) for maximum efficiency, to construct the tube so that its internal impedance between the plate and the filament is "equal to the total impedance of the variable current consumption circuit." Thus the internal impedance between the plate and filament of the tube should equal or match the impedance of the external circuit, including the receiving...
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