Oeste
E. Clemens Horst Co. v. Oeste
Opinion
lead Opinion
Lemmon, J.
“A Piece of String” is the title of one of DcMaupassant’s best-known short stories. This Court is now being called upon to determine whether the plaintiff’s patent of a coir string for cleaning hop picking fingers involves fiction of another sort; namely, an untenable legal fiction.
1. The Complaint
On June 6, 1952, the plaintiff filed its complaint, alleging infringement of United States Letters Patent No. 2,114,712, hereinafter referred to as “the patent”.
Other allegations are:
The patent was issued on April 19, 1938, to Emil Clemens Horst, for an invention “in a method of keeping the picking fingers of the hop picking machines clean”.
*409 On November 22, 1938, Horst assigned the patent to the plaintiff. During the six-year period prior to the filing of the complaint, the defendant has infringed the patent by “practicing the patented method”, processing approximately 3,315 bales of hops while so doing. A reasonable royalty for the practice of the patented method is 25 cents per bale. As a proximate result of the infringing acts of the defendant, the plaintiff has been damaged in the amount ■of $828.25 (sic).