Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/223

211 legal title to the patent on which the suit was brought, the said corporation was the equitable owner, and was solely interested in the gains and damages following a decree for the complainant. Under these circumstances, and also in view of the fact that all the costs of the suit had thus far been incurred by the corporation for its expected benefit and profit, the court ordered the amendment to be made. See Stimpson v. Rodgers, 4 Blatchf. 337.

The answer of the defendant raises several issues, but as the only proof offered by the complainant was that taken to establish their prima facie case, and as that limits the controversy entirely to the first claim of the patent, the defendant has confined his defence to said claim, and all his testimony seems to relate to the prior state of the art, for the purpose of showing that Palmer was not the original and first inventor of the improvements in paper boxes described and made the subject-matter of said claim.

Turning to the patent we find the claim to be as follows:

"The sheet, A, (in figure 4,) provided with the projection or connection piece; B, and cut and folded substantially as described and represented, in order to constitute in whole or in part a packing box, all being substantially as set forth."

The specifications are quite minute. It is not easy to refer intelligibly, without having figure 4 of the patent before us to illustrate the reference. It may be said generally "that the first claim relates to a sheet of pasteboard; or other suitable material, provided with the, projection or connecting piece, as shown in said figure, and cut and folded and joined by said projection piece so as to form a packing box having a top and bottom, each composed of four pieces of material of the desired proportions, the bottom being formed by folding and cementing the four pieces, upon each other.".

Is such a combination, in the formation of a paper box, new and patentable? The evidence is all against its novelty. Several different paper boxes were exhibited, called by the respective witnesses bottle boxes, button boxes, and-silk-back button boxes, all of which clearly anticipate the box described and claimed by Palmer.