Huntington Dry Pulverizer Co. v. Virginia-Carolina Chemical Co.

Citations

• 130 F. 558
• 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4828

Syllabus

<p>1. Patents — Suit fob Infringement — Jurisdiction of Equity.</p> <p>A court of equity has jurisdiction of a suit for infringement of a patent which had not expired when the bill was filed, inasmuch as an injunction might have issued before its expiration, although no preliminary injunction was applied for and the patent expires before a hearing.</p> <p>2. Same — Conjoint Use.</p> <p>A bill for the infringement of an expired and an unexpired patent states ground for relief in equity, where it alleges that the infringement consists in the use by defendant of a machine which embodies the devices of both patents, so conjoined as to render it practically impossible to apportion the damages and profits resulting from the use of each element of the machine.</p> <p>3. Same — Multifabiousness of Bill.</p> <p>Such a bill is not multifarious, as joining a legal with an equitable demand, since under its allegations the recovery sought is not separable with respect to the two patents, and a court of equity, having acquired jurisdiction, will grant all appropriate relief in connection with the use of the alleged infringing machine.</p> <p>4. Same — Laches.</p> <p>A demurrer to a bill for infringement on the ground of laches cannot be. sustained, where the only facts to support it appearing from the bill are that the suit was not commenced until a short time before the patent expired and that it had previously been sustained.</p> <p>If 1. See Patents, vol. 38, Cent. Dig. § 465.</p> <p>f 3. Pleading in patent infringement suits, see note to Caldwell v. Powell, 19 C. C. A. 595.</p> <p>If 4. Laches as a defense in patent infringement suit, see notes to Taylor v. Sawyer Spindle Co., 22 C. C. A. 211; Richardson v. D. M. Osborne & Co., 36 D. C. A. 613.</p>