Hotchkiss v. Greenwood

52 U.S. 248 (1851)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P sued D for the alleged infringement of a patent for a new and useful improvement in making door and other knobs of all kinds of clay used in pottery, and of porcelain. The improvement is in making the knobs of clay or porcelain, and in fitting them for their application to doors, locks, and furniture, and various other uses to which they may be adapted. Each new knob has a cavity in the knob in which the screw or shank is inserted, and by which it is fastened. At trial, P presented evidence to prove the originality and usefulness of the invention, and also the infringement by Ds. Ds presented evidence tending to show the want of originality and that the mode of fastening the shank to the knob, as claimed by P, had been known and used before, and had been used and applied to the fastening of the shanks to metallic knobs. The court refused to give P's jury instruction, and charged the jury that, if knobs of the same form and for the same purposes as that claimed by P, made of metal or other material, had been before known and used; and if the spindle and shank, in the form used by them, had been before known and used, and had been attached to the metallic knob by means of a cavity in the form of dovetail and infusion of melted metal, the same as the mode claimed by P, in the attachment of the shank and spindle to their knob; and the knob of clay was simply the substitution of one material for another, the spindle and shank being the same as before in common use, and also the mode of connecting them by dovetail to the knob the same as before in common use, and no more ingenuity or skill required to construct the knob in this way than that possessed by an ordinary mechanic acquainted with the business, the patent was invalid, and the plaintiffs were not entitled to a verdict. Ds got the verdict and P appealed.