Hammermill Paper Co. v. Ardes Co.

This patent infringement action, involving a check pad cover and binder device, was brought by the predecessor of Hammermill Paper Co., against The Ardes Company. Defendant denied infringement and challenged the validity of assertedly infringed Miller United States Patent No. 2,488,823, owned by plaintiff. Judgment was for defendant, the court holding that the Miller patent is invalid and that, in any event, it had not been infringed. Hammermill Paper Co. appeals.

We turn first to the question of the validity of the Miller patent. The district court held that this patent had been anticipated by, and lacked invention over, the prior art. Appellant, as it must do in order to overturn the adjudication of invalidity, contests both of these rulings.

The single claim of the Miller patent in suit is for a binder for checkbook fillers and the like, comprised of a combination of eight elements, as set out in the margin. 1 All of these elements, considered individually, were old in the art, as appellant concedes, but the patent was issued and is here defended on the theory that the patent claim sets forth a new combination and arrangement of these old elements which functions differently…