Sanitary Street Flushing Mach. Co. v. City of Amsterdam
Sanitary Street Flushing Mach. Co. v. City of Amsterdam
Opinion of the Court
In St. Louis Trust Company, as Trustee, v. Studebaker Corporation et al., 211 Fed. 980, 128 C. C. A. 478, the Circuit Court of Appeals in this, the Second Circuit, held the patent above referred to valid for the reason it provides for discharging the water upon the pavement through pipes and flat nozzles at an angle of 20 degrees and less and that this was the most efficient angle of discharge for flushing pavements. That court also held:
“As to the machine now alleged to infringe the testimony is conflicting, but vve are inclined to think defendant’s witnesses have based their statements more on careful measurements, and less on estimates. Upon the whole, we think it has been shown that defendant’s machines, as made and operated, do not deliver the stream at any less angle than 25 degrees, which seems to be a satisfactory arrangement for modern streets and is not an infringement of*390 the patentee’s device. We are also satisfied that defendant’s machine has all the elements of the patent claims, except the angle less than 20 degrees, and that it is a very simple and easy job to modify it, so that it will be .a complete infringement., The mere lengthening of the pipes a very few inches, and a trifling regulation of the position of the nozzle, will make any one of defendant’s machines an infringing device. As at present organized, these machines would probably not commend themselves to a municipality which had streets paved with cobble or blocks with earth interstices; but the changes which would adapt it for use there are so slight that there must be a constant temptation to make them. However, until that temptation has been yielded to, we cannot find that the patent has been infringed, and therefore affirm the decree dismissing the bill, with costs of this appeal to defendants.”
The bill was dismissed by Judge Hough on the ground of noninfringement and the Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed.
In American Street Flushing Co. v. D. Connolly Boiler Co., 198 Fed. 99, 117 C. C. A. 285, the same court held the same patent valid and also infringed by another device.
I assume, from the language of the opinion of the Circuit Court of Appeals above quoted, that when one of these' Studebaker machines has its nozzles so attached and set that it will and does, when in use, discharge the water or a considerable part of it onto the pavement,
This court is bound by the decisions referred to in the Second circuit, and as the great weight of evidence is that defendant did, at the time observations were made, discharge the water from its machine upon the pavements of the streets of the city of Amsterdam within the monopolized angle, the various parts of the flushing machine itself being- either duplications or equivalents of the Ottofy machine and similarly combined, I am compelled, as stated, to find infringement.
Here this defendant has either yielded to temptation or by carelessness so adjusted the pipes and nozzles of the machine as to infringe.
There will be a decree for ati injunction and an accounting, with costs.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- SANITARY STREET FLUSHING MACH. CO. v. CITY OF AMSTERDAM
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Patents The District Court is bound, as to the validity oí a patent, by decisions of the Circuit Court of Appeals holding it valid. [Ed. Note.—For other cases, see Patents, Cent. Dig. §§ 620-625; Dec. Dig. 2. Patents 328 — Validity and Infringement—Street Flushing Machine. The Ottofy patent, No. 795,059, for a street flushing machine designed to deliver streams at an angle of 20 degrees or less to the pavement so as to have a scouring effect, was valid, and was infringed by a machine with nozzles so attached that it might, and when in use did at times, discharge water onto the pavement within the angle of 20 degrees. 8. Patents A decision that a street flushing machine involved in a prior suit had not then been so adjusted and used as to infringe was not an adjudication that the machine of the same make used by defendant was not an infringing machine or was incapable of being so adjusted as to infringe when in use. [Ed. Note.—For other cases, see Patents, Cent. Dig. §§ 620-625; Dec. Dig. «=>327.] For other cases see same topic & KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests & Indexes