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9 J. Pat. Off. Soc'y 289 (1926-1927)
Current Court Decisions

handle is hein.journals/jpatos9 and id is 309 raw text is: CURRENT COURT DECISIONS CURRENT COURT DECISIONS. DOUGLAS PECTIN CORP. Y. ARMOUR & CO., Dist. Ct., W. D., New York, July 20, 1926, 14 Fed. (2nd) 768. The defendant was sued for alleged infringement of three patents owned by plaintiff, viz: 1,082,682; 1,235,- 666; and 1,304,166. All relate to processes of jelly and jam making. The defenses raised were: (a) lack of patentable sub- ject matter; (b) public use by others for more than two years before the alleged invention; (c) anticipation, and (d) failure to make sufficient disclosure as required by ,statute. The plaintiffs argued that the patents were in the pioneer class, the patentee being the first to isolate fruit pectin for utilization in making jellies and jams. The process of the first patent consists in eliminating the natural sugars from the fruit by expression or by diffusion in water, and then digesting the pulp or pomace, as it is known in the trade, in hot water, to obtain the pectin. The essence of the invention was said to lie in the removal of the sugar, whereby the pectin is obtained as a viscous, non-gelatinous syrup. The court found the first patent to be sufficiently de- finite, when read by one skilled in the art, to satisfy R. S. 4888. The second patent removes turbidity from the prod- uct of the first patent 'by converting the dissolved starches into sugar by means of diastatic enzymes, thus preventing the starch and tannin from combining and precipitating. The court found the patentee's ascer- tainment of the cause of turbidity and the means he de- vised for removing it to be new and novel, and not an obvious expedient, in spite of expert testimony to the contrary. The third patent relates to a process of making jelly with the patented pectin concentrate without the pro- longed boiling which had previously been necessary in making such products.