Leeds Catlin Company v. Victor Talking Machine Company (213 U.S. 301)

This case is here on certiorari to an interlocutory decree of injunction restraining the petitioner, Leeds & Catlin Company, from manufacturing, using, or selling sound-reproducing apparatus or devices embodied in claim No. 35 of letters patent No. 534,543, issued to Emil Berliner, bearing date 19th of February, 1895, and also from manufacturing, using, or selling or in any way disposing of apparatus or devices which embody the method specified in claim No. 5 of the same patent. These claims will be given hereafter.

The bill is in the usual form and alleges the issuing of the patent and the existence of the necessary conditions thereof under the laws of the United States. It also alleges the transfer of title to the plaintiffs in the suit and the infringement of claims 5, 32, and 35 by the defendant, petitioner herein.

Petitioner answered, denying some of the allegations of the bill, and, of others, denying that it had knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief. Explicitly denied infringement, and alleged anticipation of the invention described in the patent by a great number of patents and publications in this country and other countries, an enumeration of which was made. And hence it is alleged that, in view of the state of the art, Berliner was not the first inventor or discoverer of any material or substantial part of the alleged improvement and invention described or claimed.

The answer further alleged that said letters patent did not describe or specify or claim any subject-matter patentable under the statutes of the United States, and are and always have been null and void. Abandonment is alleged and a two-years' use of the invention in this country before the application for the patent, that the invention and improvement were known and used by others, and were in public use and on sale in this country by divers persons, a list of whose names is given.

It is alleged that before the invention was patented in the United States the same was patented, or caused to be patented, by Emil Berliner, in foreign countries, and that by reason whereof, under § 4887 of the Revised Statutes of the United States (U.S.C.omp. Stat. 1901, p. 3382), the letters patent in suit were limited to expire at the same time with said foreign patents and each of them. The numbers and dates of the foreign patents are given,-two in Great Britain, three in France, three in Germany, and one in Canada. They will be specifically referred to hereafter. And it is alleged that, in consequence thereof, the said letters patent of the United States have long since expired, and plaintiff is not entitled to any relief by injunction or other relief in equity, that a court of equity has no jurisdiction of the suit, and that plaintiff has an adequate remedy at law. A replication was filed to the answer.

Upon the bill and certain supporting affidavits an order to show cause against a preliminary injunction was issued, which, coming on to be heard upon such affidavits, and other affidavits and exhibits, a preliminary injunction was granted. 146 Fed. 534. It was affirmed by the circuit court of appeals. 79 C. C. A. 536, 148 Fed. 1022.

Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion of the court: