United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Pope Mfg. Co. v. Gormully , 144 U.S. 254 (1892)

Pope Manufacturing Company v. Gormully (No. 4)

No. 208

Argued March 10-11, 1892

Decided April 4, 1892

144 U.S. 254

Syllabus

Pope Manufacturing Company v. Gormully, ante, 144 U. S. 224, applied to this case so far as the claim for recovery based upon contract is concerned.

Claims 2 and 3 in letters patent No. 249,278, issued November 8, 1881, to Albert E. Wallace for an axle bearing for vehicle wheels are void for want of novelty.

Claims 2 and 3 in letters patent No. 280,421, issued July 3, 1883, to Albert E. Wallace for an improvement upon the device covered by his patent of November 8, 1881, are also void for want of novelty.

This was a bill in equity for the infringement of letters patent No. 249,278, issued November 8, 1881, to Albert E. Wallace, for an axle bearing for vehicle wheels, and patent No. 280,421, issued July 3, 1883, to the same person, and for a similar device. In addition to the usual allegations of the bill for an infringement, it was alleged that the defendants were bound by certain covenants in the contract of December 1, 1884, entered into with the plaintiff, in which they acknowledged the validity of these patents and agreed not to manufacture ball bearings such as described and shown, and made the subject matter of its claim, and that they are therefore estopped to deny the validity of such patents, and that it was also stipulated in said agreement that the devices such as were being made by the defendants were contained in said

Page 144 U. S. 255

patents, and covered by the claims thereof, whereby the defendants were estopped to deny infringement.

The court below held that the defendants were not estopped by this contract, that the patents were invalid, and that if valid they were not infringed, and dismissed the bill, from which decree the plaintiff appealed to this court. 34 F.8d 6.