Dobson v. Dornan
Dobson v. Dornan
Concurring Opinion
— I concur in the reversal of the decree, but am of opinion that the patent was invalid, and that the bill should, therefore, be dismissed.
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is a suit in equity brought in February, 1875, by the appellees, trading as Dornan, Maybin & Co., against the appellants, John Dobson and James Dobson, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, for the infringement of letters patent No. 6822, for a design for a carpet, granted to Charles A. Righter, August 19, 1873, for 3-|-years. The entire specification is as follows: “ Be it known, that I, Chas. A. Righter, of the city of Philadelphia, county of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have invented and produced a new and original design for carpets, of which the following is a specification: The nature of my design is fully represented in the accompanying photographic illustration, to which reference is made. I claim as my invention — The configuration of the design hereunto annexed, when applied to carpeting.” The photographic illustration is a six-inch square, containing a single figure or design. The only defence set up in the answer is non-infringement. Issue being joined, proofs were taken, and the case was heard, and in April, 1876, a decree was made finding that the patent was valid and had been infringed, and awarding to the plaintiffs costs and an account of pi’ofits and damages before a master, and a perpetual injunction. The master made his report in April, 1882. He found that the defendants had made no profits, and stated thus the contending views of the parties as to the proper rule of damages: “The complainants asked-to have awarded to them, as damages and compensation for the injury inflicted upon them, whatever profit the defendants may have made, and also whatever loss they, the complainants, had incurred, which could be measured by the profits that would have accrued to them if they had made the exclusive sales of the carpet, deducting in such case the amount of profits, if any, made by the defendants. The defendants, however, contended that all that the complainants were entitled to was not what they, the defendants, had made or saved on the carpets, but only what they made or saved by reason of the use of the pattern, as compared with what they could have made without it, and, therefore, unless they could sell the carpet bearing the design, at a higher price
The defendants excepted to the report, but the court confirmed it, and, in October, 1882, rendered a decree for the plaintiffs for $6128.79, from which the defendants have appealed.
It is assigned for error, that the patent is void on its face, for want of a sufficient description and claim. ' It was issued under the Act of July 8, 1870, ch. 230, 16 Stat. 198. Sections 71, 72 and 76 of that act provided as follows: “ Sec. 71. Any person who, by his own industry, genius, efforts, and expense, has invented or produced any new and original design for a
It is contended that § 26 of the Act of July 8, 1870, applies to the present case. That section provides, that, before any person shall receive a patent for his invention or discovery, he shall file in the Patent Office a written description of it, and “ particularly point out and distinctly claim the part, improvement, or combination which he claims as his invention or dis-' covery.” It is urged that § 26 was not complied with in this case, and that the patent is void because it contains no description, and no proper claim.
But we are of opinion that the. description and claim are sufficient. The purport of the description is, that what the photographic illustration represents as a whole is the invention. It is that which is claimed, when applied to carpeting. The design is a pattern to be worked into a carpet, and is within the statute. Claiming “ the configuration of the design ” is the same thirig as claiming the design, or the figure, or the pattern. It is better represented by the photographic illustration than it could be by any description, and a description would probably not be intelligible without the illustration.
In Dobson v. Bigelow Carpel Co., 144 U. S. 139, 446, the
• Undoubtedly the claim in this case covers the design as a whole, and not any part of it as a part; and it is to be tested as a whole, as to novelty and infringement. The answer admits that Righter was the original and first inventor of the design for which the patent was granted, and does not question the novelty of the invention.
Exception is taken to the form of the interlocutory decree, in that, while it awards a recovery for the profits and damages from the infringement of the design, it orders an account to be taken of the profits of the defendants from infringing upon the exclusive rights of the plaintiffs “ by the manufacture, use and
It is also contended, that the weight of the evidence on the question of infringement was with the defendants. The court below found otherwise. It appears by the record that a piece of carpet, Exhibit No. 2, was introduced in evidence as containing the patented design; and another piece of carpet, Exhibit No. 3, as being the defendants’ carpet, alleged to infringe. Those exhibits have not been produced on the hearing in this court, although the brief for the appellants states that the Circuit Court evidently decided the question of infringement with little aid other than ocular inspection of the samples. This court has not the benefit of any such aid. We find, however, in the record, testimony of a witness to the effect that, from his experience as a seller of carpets, he thinks it would be almost impossible for any one who had not seen the two carpets together to tell them apart; and of another witness, that, in his opinion, not one customer in twenty-five would know the difference; and other testimony tending to the same result. While there is evidence contradictory of this, we cannot, in the absence of ocular inspection, take it upon ourselves to say that the Circuit Court erred in finding infringement.
The only remaining question is that of the amount of damages. The master and the Circuit Court proceeded on a view which had been adopted by that court in the three cases adjudged by it, the decrees in which were reversed by this court in Dobson v. Hartford Carpet Co., 114 U. S. 439. The present case was decided by the Circuit Court before such reversal. We are of opinion that the decision cited covers all the questions involved in the case at bar, and requires that the final decree in it should be reversed. In the cases in 114 U. S., the
It is' urged that the principle on which damages are to be computed in respect to a patent for a machine, or for an improvement in a machine, or for a process, is not applicable to a patent for a design, because, in a patent for a design, the result is patented, while in the other kind of patent the means are patented; that in the design patent there is no' other way of effecting the result, while in the other there generally is: and that, therefore, in the design patent the entire profits or damages on the article containing the design are to be given, while in the other only those belonging to the particular improvement patented are to be allowed. But we think all that is here urged is covered by what was said in the cases in 114 U. S. The plaintiff must show what profits or damages are attributable to the use of the infringing design.
In the present case, the master found that the plaintiffs’ profit on their carpets was a certain percentage, and assumed or presumed that the defendants’ carpets, which were far inferior in quality as well as in market value, displaced those of the plaintiffs to the extent of the sales by the defendants, and held that the entire profit which the plaintiffs would have received, at such percentage, from the sale of 'an equal quantity of their own carpets of the same pattern, was the proper measure of their damages. The defendants’ carpets were so inferior in quality that they sold them at a much less price than the plaintiffs got for their carpets, and even at those prices the defendants made no profits. Under these circumstances there
It does not evade the force of the principle governing the case, that, in arriving at the percentage of profit made by the plaintiffs on their sales, the cost was made up by computing all the items which .entered into the production of their carpets. The objection is to taking the whole of that profit as the measure of damages, on the assumption that the whole of it was due solely to the design, and on the further assumption that the plaintiffs would have sold of their higher grade carpets a quantity equal to the cheaper lower grade carpets sold by the defendants.
The final decree of the Circuit Court is reversed, and the case is remanded to that court, with direction to disallow the award of damages, and to awa/rd six cents damages, and to allow to the defendants a recovery for their costs after interlocutory decree, and to the plaintiffs a recovery for their costs to and including interlocutory decree.
Reference
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- DOBSON & Another v. DORNAN & Others
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- The specification oí letters patent for a design for a carpet, which is accompanied by a photographic illustration, and merely states that the nature of the design is fully represented in such illustration, and claims “the configuration of the design hereunto annexed, when applied to carpeting,” sets forth a sufficient description and claim, and the patent is valid. An interlocutory decree which awards a recovery for profits and -damages for the infringement- of a patent for a design for a carpet, and orders an account of the profits from infringing by the manufacture, use and sale of carpeting bearing the design, and of the damages by reason of the infringement, is not open to the objection that it awards the profits and damages resulting from the making and selling of the carpeting, instead of those resulting from the use of the design. On the question of the infringement of a patent for a design for carpeting, in ' a suit in equity, where exhibits of carpets containing the patented and the infringing designs were produced in the Circuit Court, and it decided the question of infringement against the defendant, by the aid of ocular inspection of those exhibits, and, on an appeal by him, those exhibits were not produced in this court, and there was, in the record, testimony tending to show infringement, this court held, that, although there was contradictory testimony, it could not, in the absence of ocular inspection, say that the Circuit Court erred in finding infringement. . The decision in Dobson v. Hartford Carpat Co. (114 U. S. 439,) as to the rule of damages in a suit in equity for the infringement of a patent for a design for a carpet, confirmed. The plaintiff must show what profits or damages are attributable to the use of the infringing design. The defendant made no profits on the manufacture and sale of carpets containing the infringing design. The plaintiff made a certain percentage of profit on the manufacture and sale of carpets containing the patented design. The defendant’s carpets were far inferior in quality and market value to those óf the plaintiff. The Circuit Court presumed that the defendant’s carpets displaced those of the plaintiff, to the extent of the defendant’s sales, and held that the entire profit which the plaintiff would have received, at such percentage, from the sale of an equal quantity of his own carpets of the same pattern, was the proper measure of his damages. There was no satisfactory evidence that those who bought the defendant's cheap carpets would have bought the plaintiff’s higher priced ones, or that the design added anything to the defendant’s price, or promoted his sale of the particular carpet ; and none to show what part of the defendant’s price was to be attributed to the design : Held, That the Circuit Court was in error. The decree was reversed, and the case remanded, with direction to disallow the award of damages, and to award six cents damages, and to allow to the defendant a recovery of his costs after interlocutory decree, and to the plaintiff a recovery of his costs to and including interlocutory decree.