Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/650

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

B0ETON r. TOWtl OP GEifiNVILIiE, 043 �instead of one corner of tHc carriage, ftnd thus brîngs the lantem direetly under the free end of the arm, instead of under its curved part, or arch. The claim is for the design for a lamp post, consisting of the post, carriage, bails, lamps, chains, and arches, ail substantially as shown and described. Between the arohes there is an ornament in the form of an aoom, which is mentioned in the specification but not in the claim. The application for this patent was filed January 18, 1878. �It is considered by both parties to the suit that the two lan- terna of the drawing are duplioates, and that if the patent is valid it is infringed by the use of a lamp post like the patent 10,497 in ail respects, except that it bas but one lantem. The posts oharged as infringements have but one lantern, but in other respects are almost exactly like the patented design. The plaintiflf had obtained a mechanical patent, June 13, 1876, No. 178,508, for an improvement in street lamps, and his drawings represent a lamp post of similar design with No. 9,488, except that it has four lantems on one post. A ques- tion is made by the defendants whether an inventor is not to be presumed to abandon his design when he exhibits it in the drawings of a mechanical patent. I do not see why this consequence should follow until the design has been in use for two years; but I do not decide this point, because the plaintiff's second patent shows a much improved design, and he relied entirely upon that patent in his brief and his argu- ment. I agree with him that the mechanical patent and its duplicate design do not anticipate the more pleasing and fin*-' ished design of No. 10,497. �The defendants, in their answer, rely on two mechanical patents to John M. Bruce, for lamp posts with chains and weights, the first of which is earlier than the eairliest of Bur- ton's, and has a more extensive claim. This patent was ap-' plied for November 14, 1874, and issued Deoember 22, 1874; and thereafter Bruce appears to have dealt somewhai ex- tensively in lamp posts having these mechanical contrivances^ But his patents do not show posts like the plaintiff's. The first has two posts, between which the lantern is hung; and ����