Shields-Jetco, Inc. v. Emanuel Torti

ALDRICH, Chief Judge.

This appeal by Emanuel Torti, the owner of Patent No. 3,089,310, from a finding of non-infringement raises a single question. The patent, known as a Trench Shoring Machine, is a combination patent that provides self-propelled parallel shields, whose purpose is to line and shore both sides of the trench during back-hoe and pipe-laying operations, “to prevent cave-ins and the like.” There is substantial need for such a device because pipes are l^id in relatively unstable earth or sand in depths up to and exceeding 20 feet. The described device has a solid back-end,…