Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/171

 156 FEDERAL REPORTER. �The defendant was manufacturing machines for purifying middlings under letters patent, and the complainant, believing that he was trespassing upon its rights, had an interview through an agent, when a settlement was per- f ected. The complainant agreed to give $5,000 for all the patents owned by the defendant if he would stop manufacturing and quit the business, and also agreed to permit the defendant to sell certain niaeliines he had made on payment of a royalty, which the defendant accepted. An assignment was executed, and delivered to the flrm of which the agent was a member, of de- fendants patents, which were flnallyassigned by said flrm to the complainant, and the defendant has paid the royalty exacted for the machines on hand, and for some time stopped manufacturing. On March 9, 1880, letters patent No. 225,218, "for an improvement in middlings purifiera," was granted defendant, and he commenced to manufacture under this patent, and has been selling machines. , �The defendant, in his answer, admits that he made a full assign- ment of the patents owned by him, inciuding reissue No. 8,386, to the firm of Bennett, Kniekerbacker & Co., but denies that he agreed to quit the business of manufacturing purifiers ; and also alleges, among other things, that reissue No. 8,386 is invalid, and that the claims therein made by him were expanded beyond the original invention. �It satisfactorily appeared on the hearing that Kniekerbacker, who conducted the negotiation with the defendant, was duly authorized to act for the complainant, and that he conducted the same on its behalf ; and also that, as a part of the settlement made, the defendant •agreed to stop manufacturing, and the payment of royalty for ma- chines on hand is not denied. �On the facts as thus established the defendant, in my opinion, cannot set up as a defence the invalidity of the assigned patents. He was not ignorant at the time of the settlement, and when he made the assignment, of all the facts which are set up in his answer, and he knew of the existence and full mechanism and operation of the machines now alleged by him to have anticipated one, at least, of those assigned the complainant ; and, having made the agreement above stated, and paid royalty for license to sell, it would be inequi- table to permit such a defence now to be made. He, of course, is free to exercise his inventive genius, and manufacture and sell any im- provements for which he may secure letters patent, provided he does not infringe the complainant's rights. On this motion, in the view taken by the court, the fourth claim only of letters patent reissue No. 8,386 will be referred to in connection with No. 225,218, and the issue of infringement considered, and to do this satisfactorily. ��� �