Dosenbach v. Webster
Dosenbach v. Webster
Opinion of the Court
This appeal is from the decision of Commissioner of Patents awarding priority of invention to appellee Webster.
The interference is between a patent to Dosenbach issued June 11, 1918, on an application filed March 7, 1918, and an application of Webster, filed January 23, .1917.
This is a companion interference to No. 1477, -App. D. C. -, 278 Fed. 395, just decided. Dosenbach’s application here involved was a division of his application in the companion case. The present interference is submitted on proofs presented in No. 1477. The interference is in two counts, as follows:
“1. A process of concentrating ores containing copper in different chemical compounds, one of such compounds being sulphide of copper, which consists in subjecting the ore to the action of a solvent which causes the nonsulphide copper to go into solution while leaving the sulphide copper substantially unaltered, precipitating the dissolved copper in the metallic state in the mixture of ore and solvent, and then separating the precipitated copper and sulphide copper from the gangue by flotation.
“2. A process for concentrating ores containing sulphide copper and compounds of copper that are convertible in sulphates by the action of sulphuric acid comprising the operations of subjecting the ore to the action of sulphuric acid forming copper sulphate, precipitating the copper in the metallic state in the mixture of. ore and acid, and then separating the precipitated copper and the sulphide copper from the gangue by flotation.”
The same process is involved in this interference as in the companion case, but in the present case it is applied to ores containing both sulphide copper and nonsulphide, which may be converted into sulphates by the action of sulphuric acid. It is urged by counsel for Dosenbach that there is nothing in the record to show that Webster conceived the idea of applying the process to ores which contained sulphides as well as nonsulphides, and the Examiner and Board of Examiners in Chief held that inasmuch as the record fails to show that Webster conceived the idea of applying the process of the companion case to ores which contain both sulphides and nonsulphides, that, he must be confined to his record date, which is subsequent to the original application of Dosen-bach.
“An award of priority of the issue herein gives Dosenbach rights excluding Webster, the winning party in the earlier interference, from using his prior invention on the ores he treated in his experiments which the evidence here considered has been uniformly held to show reduction to practice prior to Dosenbach.”
The decision of the Commissioner of Patents is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- DOSENBACH v. WEBSTER
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- 1 case
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- Published