Greene Process Metal Co. v. Washington Iron Works

Appellant’s bill of complaint charged appellee with infringing a patent owned by appellant, and prayed for an injunction restraining further infringement thereof and for an accounting of profits and damages. Appellee’s answer pleaded invalidity of the patent and denied the alleged infringement. On final hearing, the District Court held the patent invalid for lack of invention and for lack of novelty and, accordingly, entered a decree dismissing the bill. This appeal is from that decree.

The patent in question was applied for by Albert E. Greene on January 2, 1909. Greene’s application was pending in the Patent Office for a period of sixteen years, during which it was amended fourteen times. This much-amended application was finally granted, and the patent here in question, No. 1,532,052, was issued to appellant, as Greene’s assignee, on March 31, 1925. It is for an alleged improvement in the treatment of iron or steel in electric furnaces. The specification states:

“ * * * The invention has for its object the provision of an improved electric furnace process for treating iron or steel in the course of which impurities, such as sulfur, phosphorous and oxygen, are removed…