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265 F. 462

Docket No. 1289.

In re Moore

District of Columbia District Court

Submitted January 20, 1920.

Decided April 5, 1920.)

District of Columbia District Court · decided 1920-04-05

<p>Appeal from a Decision of the Patent Office.</p> <p>Patent application by David P. Moore and another. From a decision of the Patent Office, rejecting certain claims, the applicants appeal.</p>

2 counsel of record

Relies on Grinnell Washing Mach Co v. E E Johnson Co

Affirmed · Decided 1920-04-05

¶1Patents <S=>26(I) — -New combination of elements, operating in same way and accomplishing same result, not patentable.

¶2The application to, a patented vacuum cleaner of elements of a device covered by a.foreign patent involved merely mechanical skill, and not invention, where each element in the new combination operated in substantially the same way as in the prior device and effected substantially the same result.

¶3<§ss>For other cases see same topic & KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numhered Digests & Indexes

¶4Appeal from a Decision of the Patent Office.

¶5Patent application by David P. Moore and another. From a decision of the Patent Office, rejecting certain claims, the applicants appeal.

¶6Affirmed.

¶7J. S. Barker, of Washington, D. C., for appellants.

¶8T. A. Plostetler, of Washington, D. C., for Commissioner of Patents.

¶9ROBB, Associate Justice.

¶10Appeal from a decision in the Patent Office rejecting certain patent claims for a portable cleaning machine of the vacuum type. Claims numbered 6 to 11, inclusive, are here involved. Claim numbered 8 sufficiently illustrates the group, and reads as follows:

“8. A portable carpet-cleaning machine comprising a casing divided into two separate compartments, a dust-collecting nozzle carried at the front end of the casing and positioned to lie in close engagement with the carpet .being cleaned, and operating to collect the lighter particles of dust and discharge them into one of the compartments of the casing, a suction-creating device carried by the casing and in communication with the nozzle through the last-mentioned compartment, a drive wheel located at the rear of the casing, connections between the drive wheel and the suction-creating devices for operating the latter as the casing is moved over the surface being cleaned, and a rotary driven brush located in the other compartment of the casing and situated between the nozzle and the said drive wheel.”

¶11*463Appellant has done no more than apply to the Sturgeon device (patent No. 996,810, July 4, 1911) a rotary brush and its co-operative parts, shown in the Behringer device (British patent, No. 11,413, of 1908). Each element in the new combination operates in substantially the same way that it operated in the prior device, and effects substantially the same result. This is not invention. Grinnell Washing Co. v. Johnson Co., 247 U. S. 426, 38 Sup. Ct. 547, 62 L. Ed. 1196. Nothing more was involved than the skill of the mechanic. Since each of the Patent Office tribunals has fully considered the references, we affirm the decision without further discussion.

¶12Affirmed.

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