Gettelman Mfg. v. Lawn `N' Sport P. M. S. S

7 Citing cases

  1. Escoa Fintube Corp. v. Tranter, Inc.

    631 F.2d 682 (10th Cir. 1980)   Cited 5 times

    383 U.S. at 52, 86 S.Ct. at 714. See also John Zink Co. v. National Airoil Burner Co., 613 F.2d 547, 551 (5th Cir. 1980); Application of Marshall, 578 F.2d 301, 304 (CCPA 1978); W. L. Gore Assoc. v. Carlisle Corp., 529 F.2d 614, 619, 41 A.L.R.Fed. 941 (3d Cir. 1976); Gettelman Mfg., Inc. v. Lawn 'N Sport Power Mower Sales Service,Inc., 517 F.2d 1194, 1199 (7th Cir. 1975). The trial court recognized that the teachings of the Morris '058 patent were to the effect that use of I-type serrated fin stock helically wound around a cylindrical tube causes the edge of the fin stock to conform to a series of straight lines rather than a continuous curve, and that this would cause irregularities in the weld.

  2. Dual Manufacturing & Engineering, Inc. v. Burris Industries, Inc.

    619 F.2d 660 (7th Cir. 1980)   Cited 35 times
    In Dual Manufacturing, this court, in reversing the district court, held that patents relating to chairs which could be reclined without striking nearby walls were, as a matter of law, void for obviousness under prior art.

    Returning to the proposition of law originally adverted to in this opinion that obviousness is a question of law, we see little reason for extending the discussion too much beyond the clear statement in Pederson, supra, other than to observe as applicable to the present issue, that this court has never felt it was bound by a determination of nonobviousness at the trial court level resulting in validity even where that finding had been made by a district court judge, whose expertise in the subject presumably would be well above that possessed by a lay jury. See, e. g., Skil Corporation v. Lucerne Products, Inc., 503 F.2d 745 (7th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 974, 95 S.Ct. 1398, 43 L.Ed.2d 654 (1975); Panduit Corporation v. Burndy Corporation, 517 F.2d 535 (7th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 987, 96 S.Ct. 395, 46 L.Ed.2d 304; Gettelman Mfg. Inc. v. Lawn `N' Sport Power Mower Sales Service, Inc., 517 F.2d 1194 (7th Cir. 1975); and Burland v. Trippe Mfg. Co., 543 F.2d 588 (7th Cir. 1976). The appellees on rehearing en banc relied extensively albeit selectively, on Panther Pumps Equipment Co. v. Hydrocraft, Inc., 468 F.2d 225 (7th Cir. 1972), a case in which the issue of obviousness had been submitted to a jury which had returned a verdict that the patents were valid. The appellees assert that this court affirmed the jury verdict and made no effort whatsoever independently to examine or determine obviousness.

  3. Republic Industries, Inc. v. Schlage Lock Co.

    592 F.2d 963 (7th Cir. 1979)   Cited 57 times
    In Republic Industries Inc. v. Schlage Lock Co., 592 F.2d 963, 972-73 (7th Cir. 1979), and Dual Mfg. Engineering, Inc. v. Burris Industries Inc., 619 F.2d 660, 665 (7th Cir. en banc), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 870, 101 S.Ct. 208, 66 L.Ed.2d 90 (1980), we summarized the extent of the presumption of validity of a patent, noting that the presumption is not conclusive, but merely places the burden of proof on the party attacking the validity of the patent.

    A realistic appraisal of these formulations, however, reveals that synergism is only a figure of speech, for in its literal sense synergism never has existed and never can exist in mechanical or hydraulic inventions when the term is defined as a whole result greater than the sum of its constituent parts. Other definitions have included: the elements must take on a surprising quality, Gettleman Manufacturing, Inc. v. Lawn `N' Sport, 517 F.2d 1194, 1199 (7th Cir. 1975); the combination must produce a result other than the anticipated sum of the separate parts, E-T Industries, Inc. v. Whittaker Corp., 523 F.2d 636, 641 (7th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 870, 97 S.Ct. 182, 50 L.Ed.2d 150 (1976); the elements must, in the aggregate, produce new, unusual or striking results, Panduit Corp. v. Burndy Corp., 517 F.2d 535, 539 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 987, 96 S.Ct. 395, 46 L.Ed.2d 304 (1975); the results must be unachieved by prior art structures, Reese v. Elkhart Welding Boiler Works, Inc., 447 F.2d 517, 526 (7th Cir. 1971). At least in one basic sense, no result is actually greater than the sum of its parts.

  4. Pederson v. Stewart-Warner Corp.

    536 F.2d 1179 (7th Cir. 1976)   Cited 12 times
    In Pederson v. Stewart-Warner Corp., 536 F.2d 1179, 1181 (7th Cir. 1976), the court said that simply rearranging old elements "with each performing the same function it had been known to perform" is not a patentable combination, even though the combination does produce a more striking result.

    This court has often recognized that such a claim must pass a "rather severe test" of obviousness. Gettelman Mfg. Inc. v. Lawn `N' Sport Power Mower Sales Service, Inc., 517 F.2d 1194, 1197 (7th Cir. 1975); Panduit Corp. v. Burndy Corp., 517 F.2d 535, 539 (7th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 987, 96 S.Ct. 395, 46 L.Ed.2d 304 (1975); Skil Corp. v. Lucerne Products, Inc., 503 F.2d 745, 749 (7th Cir. 1974); cert. denied, 420 U.S. 974, 95 S.Ct. 1398, 43 L.Ed.2d 654 (1975); Toro Manufacturing Corp. v. Jacobsen Manufacturing Co., 357 F.2d 901, 904 (7th Cir. 1966). That test, stated "about as precisely as the subject permits," was set forth in Great Atlantic Pacific Tea Co. v. Supermarket Equipment Corp., supra, 340 U.S. at 151, 71 S.Ct. at 129 (1950), quoting Lincoln Engineering Co. v. Stewart-Warner Corp., 303 U.S. 545, 549, 58 S.Ct. 662, 82 L.Ed. 1008 (1938): "The mere aggregation of a number of old parts or elements which, in the aggregation, perform or produce no new or different function or operation than that theretofore performed or produced by them, is not patentable invention.

  5. Airtex Corp. v. Shelley Radiant Ceiling Co.

    536 F.2d 145 (7th Cir. 1976)   Cited 76 times
    Finding Airtex's interrogatory answers did not "comport with the duty of cooperation and disclosure imposed by the discovery provisions of the federal rules"

    Where the claimed nonobviousness of the invention rests on a new combination of old elements, the claimed invention must pass a "rather severe test" consonant with the difficulty and improbability of finding invention in an assembly of old elements. Gettleman Manufacturing, Inc. v. Lawn `N' Sport Power Mower Sales Service, Inc., 517 F.2d 1194, 1197 (7th Cir. 1975), citing Panduit Corporation v. Burndy Corporation, 517 F.2d 535, 539 (7th Cir. 1975); see also Skil Corporation v. Lucerne Products, Inc., 503 F.2d 745, 749 (7th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 974, 95 S.Ct. 1398, 43 L.Ed.2d 654 (1975). In considering the question of the obviousness of a combination of old elements, we shall employ the analysis set forth by Mr. Justice Stevens while still a member of this court in E-T Industries, Inc. v. Whittaker Corporation, 523 F.2d 636 (7th Cir. 1975).

  6. Lewart Co. v. ACCO International, Inc.

    428 F. Supp. 258 (N.D. Ill. 1976)   Cited 1 times

    Beyer applied the concepts evident in Phillips, McKowen and the Tally-Ho device, but if the refinement fails to rise above the level of mere mechanical skill, that refinement is not a patentable invention. Gettleman Mfg. Inc. v. Lawn n' Sport P.M.S. S. Inc., 517 F.2d 1194 (7th Cir. 1975). In this regard the improvement of the '304 patent over the Goldman concept is analogous to the improvements over the prior art of the patent in Blohm Voss AG v. Prudential Grace Lines, Inc., 489 F.2d 231 (4th Cir. 1973), cert. denied 419 U.S. 840, 95 S.Ct. 70, 42 L.Ed.2d 67.

  7. Pederson v. Stewart-Warner Corp.

    400 F. Supp. 1262 (N.D. Ill. 1975)   Cited 2 times

    In a country which has chosen to allow such monopolies only as a reward and inducement for "innovation, advancement, or social benefit", patents for combinations of obvious or already rewarded devices are disfavored. Anderson's-Black Rock, Inc. v. Pavement Salvage Co., Inc., 396 U.S. 57, 90 S.Ct. 305, 24 L.Ed.2d 258 (1969); Graham v. John Deere Co., supra, 383 U.S. at 6, 86 S.Ct. 684; Great A. P. Tea Co. v. Supermarket Corp., 340 U.S. 147, 71 S.Ct. 127, 95 L.Ed. 162 (1950); Lincoln Engineering Co. v. Stewart-Warner Corp., 303 U.S. 545, 58 S.Ct. 662, 82 L.Ed. 1008 (1938); Gettelman Mfg., Inc. v. Lawn `N' Sport, 517 F.2d 1194 (7th Cir., filed June 12, 1975). To approach the patentability of combinations more loosely would remove knowledge which is already in the public use.