Rip Van Winkle Wall Bed Co. v. Murphy Wall Bed Co.

Plaintiffs (appellees here) brought suit in the lower court against defendant (appellant here) for the alleged infringement of plaintiffs’ patent for improvements in concealed or disappearing beds. The original number of plaintiffs’ patent is 1,007,596 dated October 31, 1911; a reissued patent numbered 13,428 is dated June 11, 1912, and is the patent in suit.

On April 8, 1911, W. L. Murphy filed an application for other improvements in disappearing beds. The patent issued June 18, 1912, upon this application, is numbered 1,030,201. The patent is not in suit, but the disclosure therein has a bearing on the question involved in this suit.

Plaintiff Marshall & Stearns Company is the licensee under the patent for Northern California.

The reissued patent No. 13,428 contains fourteen claims. The complaint charges the defendant with the infringement of only four of these claims, namely, claims 9, 10, 13, and 14; bnt the controversy turns upon the elements of the combination of bed structure described in claims 13 and 14 as compared with and differentiated from the elements of the combination of bed structure described in claims 9 and 10 and defendant’s bed structure.

In these claims…