Star Brass Works v. General Electric Co.

Citations

• 111 F. 398
• 49 C.C.A. 409
• 1901 U.S. App. LEXIS 4392

Syllabus

<p>1. Patents—Invention—Evidence of Commercial Sccof.ss.</p> <p>Where, in the device of a patent, the departure from former means is small, yet the change is important, the doubt as to whether the inventive faculty has been exercised is to he weighed in view of the fact that the device in question has displaced others which had previously been employed for analogous uses, and this may decide the' issue in favor of invention, especially where other inventors, of experience and skill in the art, had unsuccessfully attempted to solve the problem presented.</p> <p>2. Same—Electric Railway Trolleys.</p> <p>The Anderson patent, No. 412,155, for improvements in trolleys for electric railway service, claim 8, which covers the combination with a trolley wheel of metallic conducting brushes between the hubs -of the wheel and the frame, the purpose being to provide a conductor which should be within the frame, and thereby protected from external injury, and also to prevent the current from passing through and destroying the lubricant upon the journal of the wheel, must he conceded to show invention, in view of the immediate adoption and wide use of the device, although the elements of the combination were old and well known in other branches of the electrical art. Such claim also livid infringed.</p>