Vincent v. Hopkins
Vincent v. Hopkins
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court:
Each successive tribunal of the Office affirmed this decision. This unanimity increases the burden of the junior party.
We may assume that the finding as to Vincent’s conception is correct. The question upon which the case turns is the claim of reduction to practice. It appears that Vincent constructed a plate model of his invention in the spring of 1908, which has been produced in evidence. This model consists of two banks of white keys for setting up a multiplicand, and one bank of red keys for setting up the digits of a multiplier. Each bank of white keys controls a series of nine plates notched in accordance with the multiplication table, and there are also three sets of rack bars and three numeral wheels.
While several hand operations are required to perform a multiplication upon this model, it is contended that the issue does not preclude this method of operation. It is contended that the model is full size and made of materials usually used in the Burroughs Adding Machine. It is of limited capacity. The contention of Hopkins is that this is not a reduction to practice, but a device-constructed for study, and was not intended to be subjected to the tests necessary as a practice of the invention. The numbers on the dial wheel are upside down, and cannot be conveniently read. There is no mechanism for bringing the registry wheel back to zero after a computation has been made. The most that the machine can do is to multiply a single digit by a single digit, a computation easily performed without a machine. Finally, the various distinct hand operations do not constitute the automatic operation contemplated by the issue. The fixtures are attached to a steel plate and have not the appearance of a complete machine. Vincent ..admits that the only way in which the accumulating wheels can be cleared is by adding the necessary complementary numbers
Having examined the exhibit with an explanation of its action, we agree with the tribunals of the Patent Office that it cannot be considered a reduction to practice. It does not come within the class of crude devices capable of use sufficient to demonstrate their practical efficacy and utility, as in Coffee v. Guerrant, 3 App. D. C. 497, and other cases cited on behalf of appellant; it more nearly resembles the kind of machine claimed as a reduction to practice in Paul v. Hess, 24 App. D. C. 462.
The tribunals also decided that, notwithstanding the prior conception of Vincent, he had been lacking in diligence when Hopkins entered the field. The evidence amply sustains this conclusion.
The decision is affirmed and the clerk will certify this decision' to the Commissioner of Patents. Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- VINCENT v. HOPKINS
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Aepeat. and Error; Patents; Interference; Reduction to Practice. 1. Unanimity of decision by the Patent Office tribunals in favor of the senior party to an interference increases the burden of the junior party. 2. Where, in an interference involving the invention of an attachment to an adding machine designed to perforin multiplication, it was claimed by the junior party that a plate model constructed by him was a reduction to practice, but it appeared, among other things, that the numbers on the dial wheel of the model were upside down and could not bo conveniently read; that there was no mechanism for bringing the registry wheel back to zero after a computation had been made; that the most the model could do was to multiply digit by digit; that the various hand operations which this operation necessitated did not constitute the automatic operation contemplated by the issue, and that the only way in which the accumulating wheels could be cleared was by adding the necessary complementary numbers to them; it was held that the device did not come within the class of crude devices capable of use sufficient to demonstrate their practical efficacy and utility, and did not constitute a reduction to practice. (Citing Paul v. Hess, 24 App. D. C. 462, and distinguishing Coffee v. Guerrant, 3 App. D. C. 497.)