Scientific American.-No. 2. [New Series.], July 14, 1877 Volume XXXVII (Paperback)

Excerpt: ...equity. By Nixon, District Judge. This is an action for an alleged infringement of complainant's letters patent No. 82,606, dated September 29, 1868, and reissued March 7, 1871, No. 4,289. The subject-matter of the patent is in the reissue described to be a strap "to confine a shawl or similar article in a bundle," and termed a shawl-strap. The schedule attached to and forming a part of the said reissued patent states, that before the complainant's invention "straps had been used to confine a shawl or similar article in a bundle, and a leather cross-piece with loops at the ends, had extended from one strap to the other; and above and attached to this leather cross-piece was a handle. This leather cross-piece or connecting strap is liable to bend and allow the straps to be drawn toward each other by the handle in sustaining the weight. Hence the bundle is not kept in a proper shape and the handle is inconvenient to grasp." The invention is then stated to consist "of a rigid cross-bar beneath the handle, combined with suspending straps, that are to be passed around the shawl or bundle, such straps passing through loops at the ends of the handle." No question can be made but that the shawl straps manufactured and sold by the defendant are an infringement of the complainant's reissue. They consist of a metallic cross-bar, with slots at the ends for the reception of the straps, and which also connect the ends of the handle. Several defences are set up in the answer, but the only one necessary to consider is the first, to wit: The want of novelty and prior public use. I had occasion, heretofore, to inquire into the validity of the complainant's patent, in a controversy between the same complainant, and Speer et al., reported in VI. Off. Gaz. 1874, in which, as in this case, the principal defence turned upon the novelty of the invention. A prior public use was alleged and attempted to be proved. I there said and now repeat "that the patent is prima facie...