Armour and Company v. Swift & Company

STEVENS, Circuit Judge.

Hansen’s application for a patent on a process for assembling pieces of turkey meat into a boneless roast was originally rejected as obvious in view of the prior work of Maas. 1 2Armour persuaded the Patent Examiner that Maas’ disclosure related to red meat which had not passed through rigor mortis, and that Hansen’s discovery that essentially the same process would work with post-rigor poultry meat was patentable. The primary issue here is whether the Examiner’s second or his first, appraisal of the invention was correct. 2

We think an artisan who was familiar with the…