Infingement suit by Owens Bottle Company; Brookfield patents listed

Infringment Suits

Against 35 Concerns

By Owens Bottle Co.

A long threatened litigation of wide-spread interest to glass manufacturers throughout the country took definite form on February 16 in the filing of a patent infringement suit in the United States Court at Toledo, O., by the Owens Bottle Co. and the Toledo Glass Co., of Toledo, and Hazel-Atlas Glass Co., of Wheeling, W. Va., against the O'Neill Machine Co., of Toledo. Similar suits were filed in the Federal Court at Indianapolis against the Hart Glass Manufacturing Co., of Dunkirk, Ind.

Notices of infringement have also been sent out by the Owens' interests to approximately 35 manufacturers of bottles in various parts of the country, and considerable further litigation is anticipated.

There are five Owens company's patents on which the suit is based as follows:

Patents to Henry Morgan Brookfield, of New York City, No. 836,297, November 20, 1906, and No. 883,779, April 7, 1908.

Patent to William Emil Bock, of Toledo, No. 919,120, April 20, 1909.

Patents to Clyde R. Lott, of Washington, D. C., No. 1,382,993, and No. 1,382,994, June 28, 1921.

The Owens company asserts that these patents control the feeder method of making bottles antomatically, which has lately come into considerable importance. It is an entirely separate and distinct process from the vacuum method carried on by the Owens machine, which is not in question.

The O'Neill Machine Co. in recent years has developed, with considerable success, a semi-automatic machine for making glass bottles, and has lately added the feeding method, which is in question, and which is said to involve an infringment of the Owens' patents.

The Owens Bottle Co. is the pioneer in the development of automatic bottle-making machinery, not only in the United States, but in practically every foreign nation o£ importance. It is also the largest manufacturer of bottles in the world, with the Hazel-Atlas Glass, company probably next in size. Millions of dollars may turn on the outcome of the suit.

Both the Owens automatic machine and the O'Neill machines are used abroad, and it is to be presumed that the foreign patents will eventually be involved, so that the litigation takes on an international aspect.

Mr. O'N'eill is at present in Europe looking after the foreign interests of his company, and C. A. Schmettan, formerly of Toledo, is making his headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, in the interests of the Owens and associated companies.