BUSBY V. LADD.
051
BUSBY
v.
LADD.
(Ob'cuit Oourt, N. D. Ualifornia. PATENTS FOR INVE]I;TIONS-INVENTTON.
July 22, 1889.)
Where a welt of a double piece of leather. inserted in a seam in such manner that the edges come on the inside so as to require no trimming on the outside. the welt presenting a rounded appearance. has been for years used in gentlemen's and ladies' saddles, in leather cushions. horse collars, leather bags, satchels. hand bags. ladies' reticnles of various kinds. and in the uppers of boots and shoes. it no invention to transfer the same kind of welt to gloves. This is but a double use for analogous and similar purposes, and is not patentable.
(Syllabu8 by the Court.)
In Equity. Suit upon a patent in which the following is the claim: "The improvement in the manufacture of gloves, consisting of inserting a welt of a double piece of the same material and color of the body, the edges of which come on the inside, whereby a uniform color of welt and glove is maintained, and the necessity of trimming avoided, substantially as and for the purposes herein described." Langhorne & Miller, for plaintiff. A. P. Van DuzCr' and John L. Boone, for defendant. Before SAWYEU, Circuit Judge. SAWYER, J., (orally.) After a careful examination of this case, in view of the state of the art disclosed, and the decisions of the supreme court, I am unable to see that the claim covers a patentable object. The double-welted seam has been used for a long time in various articles of general use, as in gentlemen's saddles, ladies' saddles, leather cushions, horse collars, leather bags, satchels, hand bags, and ladies' reticules of various kinds. The file wrapper in the case, in evidence, itself, shows that there was a prior patent for the same thing in the uppers of boots and shoes. It requires no invention to transfer that seam from one of these articles to a glove. They are analogous and similar uses of the same thing, and the patent-office declined to grant a patent, at first, until the patentee inserted in the claim a welted double seam of the "same material and same color." It l-ieems to me to be, only a doub:e use of the seam. It is claimed that this is a patent for a process. Certainly the mere using the same material constitutes no element of a process, and it requires no invention; nor is color a part of a process. The selection of a particular color is merely the exercise of taste. The tendency of the decisions of the suprRme court for some years has been to limit the field of patentable objects, and the tendency still continues. Under the view I take of the case the bill must be dismissed, and it is so ordered. I will add, that. under the view taken, I do not find it necessary to determine whether the double-welted seam had been before used in gloves. I am, however, disposed to think that a prior use in gloves has not been satis-
552
FEDERAL REPORTER,
vol. 39.
factorily shown. There is, as is usual in these cases, some vague and shadowy testimony of such use at Gloverville, and other places in New York some 25 or 30 years ago, which for some reason was discontinued; but there is, also, much testimony by parties engaged in the business at those places at the Hme to the contrary. The evidence of such prior use in gloves is not very satisfactory, but it is unnecessary to pass absolutely upon that point.
J£ASTlIAN
CHICAGO
& N. W. Ry. Co.
(Oircuit Oourt, N. D. Illinois. July 22, 1889.) PATENTS FOR IKVEKTIONS-IKFRTNGEMENTS.
Letters patent No. 3H,170. issued March 17,1885, to John P. Eastman, for a continuous mileage railroad ticket. claims a ticket consisting of "leaves or sheets bound together in book form, each having a number of mileage coupons, the leaves being connected at alternate ends for tearing off in a single piece the required number of single coupons for mileage traveled." Tile original application did notcontain the words "bound togelherin book form." but it was withdrawn, and another substituted. modified by the insertion of those words, and the patent was granted accordingly. The specifications described the sheets as being disconnected at the sides. but con nected at the ends, and as having sufficient margin on the side for binding them into book or other convenient form. Defendant used a continuous ticket, consisting of coupons of one mile each, printed on a continuous strip of paper. one end being fastened to the lids of the cover. and the strip then being laid in alternate folds. like a pocket map. The lids of the cover were joined at the back, and closed by an elastic band. so that the strip might be drawn out and coupons cut off on a metallic edge attached to the end of a lid. Held, that the first-named patent was limited to a ticket bound in hook form, and was not infringed hy merely attachinJ:\' one end of the strip to tIJe cover
West & Bond, for complainant. Geo. Payson, for defendant. BLODGETT, J. This is' a bill for an injunction and accounting by reason of the alleged infringement of patent No. 314,170, granted March 17, 1885, to complainant for a "continuous mileage ticket." The invention covered by the patent is quite clearly and sufficieiltly described in the following extracts from the specifications:
"This invention relates to railway-tickets commonly known or termed · thousand-mile tickets,' and consisting of a number of small coupons or tickets, each representing mileage, usually bound in the form of a bouk. As such tickets are now issued a number of coupons for one mile each Hre or printed on a small sheet, the separate coupons bping partially separated one from the other by means of a perforated mark or line. to facilitate tearing off, and a numopr of sheets containing such coupons-usually enough to rppreseut a thousand miles of travel-are bound tog-ether as a [,ook, to LJecanied by the person holding t.he ticket, and so that the number reqUired to represent the difltance traveied can be readily torn off by the conductor. It often happens that with the present style of putting up these the tearing off .of a certain number leaves a single coupon, or two and three cOlllJons, on a