Campbell Metal Window Corp. v. S. H. Pomeroy & Co.

LEARNED HAND, District Judge.

Verbally all the claims in suit cover the defendant’s type A window, which is the only form here challenged. There is, therefore, no need to invoke that doctrine, peculiar to the law of patents, by which the language of a formal written instrument is not taken as the limit of its scope, when the result would be to defeat the obvious purpose of the grant. The defendant, however, seeks to limit the generality of the words used by interpreting them upon the disclosure of the drawings and text, invoicing in this respect an entirely legitimate canon of construction.…