Patent infringement against J. T. & A. Hamilton; Brookfield patents involved

PATENT INFRINGEMENT SUITS AGAINST J.T. & A. HAMILTON CO.

Complaints iled in Federal Court in Pittsburgh by Owens Bottle Co. Against J.T. & A. Hamilton Co., and by Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. and Owens Bottle Co. Against Same Defendant. Lott and Brookfield Patents Involved.

Two suits in-equity have been filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, at Pittsburgh, both having to do with alleged infringement of glass feeders now in use. The first case (No. 937) is that of The Owens Bottle Co., plaintiffs, vs. J.T. & A. Hamilton Co., bottle and container manufacturers of Pittsburgh, defendant, and is based on Lott patents Nos. 1,382,993 and 1,382,994. The other case (No. 938) is that of the Hazel-Atlas Glass Co., and The Owens Bottle Co., plaintiffs vs. J.T. & A. Hamilton Co., defendant. This latter suit is based on Brookfield patents Nos. 836,297 and 883,779. Both cases have been set for the November term of court. The bills of complaint as filed are as follows:

OWENS BOTTLE CO. vs. J.T. & A. HAMILTON CO.

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HAZEL-ATLAS GLASS CO. AND OWENS BOTTLE CO. vs. J.T. & A. HAMILTON CO.

1. Plaintiff , Hazel-Atlas Glass Company, is a corporation organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of West Virginia, and having its principal place of business at Wheeling, West Virginia, and plaintiff, The Owens Bottle Co., is a corporation organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Ohio, and having its principal place of business at Toledo Ohio.

2. That the defendant, J.T. & A. Hamilton Co., is, as plantiffs are informed and believe, a corporation organized under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Pennsylvania, and having its principal place of business at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Western District of Pennsylvania, and is an inhabitant of said District.

3. This is a suit arising under the patent laws of the United States and based upon the infringement of Letters Patent No. 836,297 dated November 20, 1906, and No. 883,779 dated April 7, 1908. Plaintiffs have no plain, adequate and complete remedy at law and seek equitable relief.

4. On the 15th day of November, 1901, Henry M. Brookfield, being, as the plaintiffs are informed and believe, the first, original and sole inventor of certain new and useful improvements in Apparatus for Making Glass Insulators or other Similar Glass Articles, not known or used by others in this country before his invention or discovery thereof, not patented or described in any printed publication in this or any foreign country before his invention or discovery thereof or more than two years prior to his application hereinafter mentioned, not in public use or on sale in this country for more than two years prior to the date of said application, and which had not been abandoned, nor patented, nor caused to be patented by himself or his legal representatives or assigns in any foreign country on an application filed more than seven months prior to his application in this country, duly filed in the United States Patent Office, as Serial Number 82,368, an application for Letters Patent for said invention and on the 20th day of November, 1906, all of the requirements of the statutes of the United States then in force having been complied with, Letters Patent No. 836,297 were duly issued upon said application to said Henry M. Brookfield, which letters Patent or a duly certified copy thereof plaintiffs will produce as this court may direct.

5. On the 28th day of December, 1903, while said application Serial No. 82,368 was still pending in the United States Patent Office, said Henry M. Brookfield filed a division thereof as Serial No. 186,768, entitled Glass Furnace and Appurtenances Thereof, said divisional application being filed under and in accordance with the statutes in such cases made and provided, and on the 7th day of April, 1908, all of the requirements of the statutes of the United States then in force having been complied with, Letters patent No. 883,779 were duly issued upon said divisional application to Brookfield Glass Company, a corporation organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of New York, in accordance with an assignment from said Henry M. Brookfield to said Brookfield Glass Company, as more fully hereinafter set forth, which Letters Patent, or a duly certified copy thereof, these plaintiffs will produce as this court may direct.

6. On or about the 2nd of January, 1907, by an instrument in writing recorded in the United States Patent Office on or about January 4th, 1907, in Liber P. 75, page 287, of Transfers of Patents, said Henry M. Brookfield did sell, assign and transfer unto said Brookfield Glass Company, its successors and assigns, the entire right, title and interest in, to and under said Letters Patent No. 836,297 and said application Serial No. 186,768, and any patent to be granted upon said application, and authorized and requested the Commissioner of Patents to issue the patent upon said application to the said Brookfield Glass Company, all of which will more fully and at large appear from said instrument in writing, or a duly authenticated copy thereof, which these plaintiffs will produce as this court may direct.

7. On or about the 24th day of October, 1908, by an instrument in writing recorded in the United States Patent Office on or about the 12th day of November, 1908, in Liber X 79, page 412 of Transfers of Patents, the said Brookfield Glass Company did sell, assign and transfer to the plaintiff, Hazel-Atlas Glass Company, its successors and assigns, the entire right, title and interest in, and to and under said Letters Patent Nos. 836,297 and 883,779, all of which will more fully and at large appear from said instrument in writing, or a duly authenticated copy thereof, which these plaintiffs will produce as this court may direct.

8. On or about the 20th day of May, 1921, the plaintiff, said Hazel-Atlas Glass Company, then being in possession of the title and rights acquired as aforesaid, by an instrument in writing gave and granted the plaintiff, The Owens Bottle Company, ifs successors and assigns, the right to make, use and sell, the inventions described in said Letters Patent 836,297 and 883,779 and to sue for and collect for its own use all profits and damages arising out of past and future infringements of said Letters Patent, or either of them, which rights so given and granted to The Owens Bottle Company were exclusive except in connection with Insulators, and except further for non-exclusive shoprights of said Hazel-Atlas Glass Company, said Brookfield Glass Company and The Brookfield Glass Company, a corporation organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of New Jersey, all of which will more fully and at large appear from said instrument in writing, or a duly authenticated copy thereof, which these plaintiffs will produce as this court may direct. Since the 12th day of October, 1908, and the 20th day of May, 1921, these plaintiffs have respectively been at all times, and now are, possessed of the title and rights as hereinafter described.

9. Plaintiffs herein have expended large sums of money in perfecting, installing and manufacturing devices in accordance with said Letters Patent, and each of them have been and now are of great and unusual benefit to the public and to those plaintiffs and each of them.

10. Plaintiffs herein have fully complied with the statute by marking on all products manufactured and vended under said Letters Patent, and the word "Patented" and the day and year of the issuance of each of said Letters Patent, and defendant herein has been duly notified of its infringement of said Letters Patent and has been requested to desist therefrom, but has neglected and refused to do so and still continues its said infringements.

11. Plaintiffs are informed and believe, and therefore aver, that since the issuance of said Letters Patent and each of them, and within the six (6) years last past and since May 20, 1921, said defendant, well knowing the premises, has infringed said Letters Patent and each of them within the Western District of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere in the United States, by wrongfully and without license manufacturing and using, devices embodying inventions of each with both of said Letters Patent, and particularly the inventions covered by claims 4, 5, 6, 11, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 of Letters Patent No. 936,297 [sic] 836,297, and claims 1, 2, 4, 12, 14 and 17 of Letters patent No. 883,779; and defendant has manufactured machines and parts thereof designed or adapted or intended to be combined with other apparatus or parts thereof so as to embody the inventions of said Letters Patent, and each of them, which acts on the part of defendant constitute infringements of said Letters Patent and each of them. The acts of infringement herein complained of include the use of said infringing machines in the manufacture of certain kinds and certain types of glassware, including bottles and jars and parts therefore, which the plaintiffs, and each or both of them, are now and for many years last past have been actively manufacturing. Plaintiffs are informed and believe and therefore further aver that defendant is now infringing said Letters Patent, and each of them, as aforesaid, and threatens to continue to infringe, and plaintiffs further aver that each of them have been damaged and that the defendant has profited by reason of the said infringements.

Wherefore these plaintiffs pray:

1. That said defendant be brought before this court by process of subpoena and required to answer the maters recited in this bill of complaint, but not under oath, answer under oath being hereby expressly waived.

2. For a perpetual injunction and a preliminary injunction pending this suit, restraining the defendants, its clerks, attorneys, agents and employes from directly or indirectly infringing said Letters Patent or either of them.

3. For costs herein and an accounting of profits and damages, and that damages assessed may be increased as this court deems just.

4. For such other and further relief as the circumstances of this case may require and as seems just and equitable to this Honorable Court.