Berlin Mills Co. v. Procter & Gamble Co.

Citations

• 254 U.S. 156
• 41 S. Ct. 75
• 65 L. Ed. 196
• 1920 U.S. LEXIS 1179

Syllabus

<p>Patent No. 1,135,351, issued April 13, 1915, to Procter & Gamble Company, as assignee of John J. Burchenal, is void for lack of invention as to claims 1 and 2, claiming, respectively, a homogeneous lard-like food product consisting of incompletely hydrogenized vegetable oil, and a like product consisting of incompletely hydrogenized cottonseed oil. Pp. 161, 164.</p> <p>The process of changing vegetable oil into a homogeneous, semisolid, edible substance, by acting upon it with hydrogen in the presence of nickel, was known and open to general use, and its application to the manufacture of the food products here in question was such a step as would occur to persons skilled in the art, without . the exercise of invention. P. 165.</p> <p>256 Fed. Rep. 23, reversed.</p>