Singer Corporation

“ The trial court held that the fact that Singer had a purpose, which 'Gegauf well knew,' of enforcing the patent upon its acquisition, that the enforcement 'would most certainly include Japanese manufacturers who were the principal infringers,' and 'that Gegauf shared with Singer a common concern over Japanese competition' did not establish a conspiracy. ”

“ I think you will agree with me that neither one of us alone can protect himself most effectively.' [6] This letter brought on a meeting of the parties in Zurich on October 16, 1957. Gegauf's position was that, as the trial court found, 'while it had no objection 'to making an agreement with Singer, in order to stop as far as possible Japanese competitors in the United States market,' it was willing to do so only under certain conditions.' 205 F.Supp., at 416. ”

“ It follows, therefore, that the judgment below, which recognized the right of the defendant to make or vend sewing machines in the form in which they were made by him-that is, like unto the machines made upon the principles of the Singer system with the use of the word 'Singer,' without a plain and unequivocal indication of the origin of manufacture, was erroneous. ”

“ Persuasive support of this view is afforded by the fact that in many adjudicated cases, to which we shall have occasion hereafter to advert, where, since the expiration of the patents the right to the exclusive use of the name Singer has been asserted, it has, almost without exception, been found that Singer machines, as a whole, were a distinctive class, preserving a general uniformity of nature, however, varying may have been the types by which their structure was manifested. ”

“ It is plain that the position and size as well as the inscription found on these devices were calculated to deceive by creating the impression, on one not familiar with all the details of the marks of the Singer Manufacturing Company, that they were the marks of that company. ”

“ It sought an order of the President of the United States excluding all imported machines coming within the claims of the Gegauf patent for the term of the patent, naming European as well as Japanese infringers. Singer alleged that the tremendous volume of imports from Japan of household sewing machines, other than automatic zigzag, had eliminated all domestic manufacturers save itself and one small straight stitch part-time concern. ”

“ This is indeed a slender reed for the Court's position. For one is left at a loss to understand how the two findings can be deemed inconsistent. Obviously Singer wanted to settle the 'priority' issue with Gegauf in order to have solid patent protection against all comers particularly of course the Japanese, whose ability to manufacture these popular machines in a cheap labor market put them in the forefront of possible infringers. ”

“ The perfection of those stitches satisfied me that the machine was a success, and I stopped work, went to the hotel, and had a sound sleep. By three o'clock the next day I had the [451] machine finished, and started with it to New York, where I employed Mr. Charles M. Keller to get out a patent for it."
The trial resulted in favor of Howe, but of the two men Singer was in every way the superior in business capacity. In fact; there never has been a sewing-machine manufacturer that could compare with I. M. Singer. ”

“ Singer opened conversation with indications of coming litigation on the Harris patent, concealing the Johnson and Perla applications. Gegauf felt secure in his patent claims but insecure with reference to the inroads the Japanese machines were making on the United States market. It was this 'lever' which Singer used to secure the license, pointing out that without an agreement Gegauf and Singer might litigate for a protracted period; that they should not be fighting each other as that would only delay the issue of their respective patents ”

“ Unfair competition in business, resulting from the form in which the defendant makes its machines, and also from the employment by it of the word 'Singer' in connection with the marks and devices on the machines, and the use of the same name in circulars and advertisements. ”

“ Still less did we anticipate that within twelve years the Singer company would be selling a thousand sewing-machines a week, at a profit of a thousand dollars a day. He was the true pioneer of the mere business of selling machines, and made it easier for all his subsequent competitors."
The peculiarity of the Singer machine is the chain stitch or single thread device, but with the employment of an eye-pointed needle, and other appliances, so as to make it admirably adopted for the general purposes of [452] sewing. ”

“ The result was that in April 1956 Singer and Gegauf entered a general cross-licensing agreement providing that the parties were not to attack one another's patent applications 'directly or indirectly,' not to do anything to restrict one another's claims in patents or applications, and to facilitate the allowance to one another of 'claims as broad as possible.' In August 1956 the Patent Office declared the anticipated interference. ”

“ Singer and Gegauf settled the interference pursuant to their prior agreement: Singer withdrew its interfering claims and in April 1957 the Patent Office dissolved the interference proceeding before it had ever reached the litigation stage. 37 CFR § 1.262. Eventually the Gegauf patent issued and was sold to Singer as part of the concerted action to exclude the Japanese which is involved in the first branch of the case, supra, p. 197.
In itself the desire to secure broad claims in a patent may well be unexceptionable-when purely unilateral action is involved. ”

“ What is claimed here is that Singer engaged in a series of transactions with Gegauf and Vigorelli for an illegal purpose, i.e., to rid itself and Gegauf, together, perhaps, with Vigorelli, of infringements by their common competitors, the Japanese manufacturers. The Government claims that in this respect there were an identity of purpose among the parties and actions pursuant thereto that in law amount to a combination or conspiracy violative of the Sherman Act. It claims that this can be established under the findings of the District Court. ”

“ But in upholding the right a duty was also enjoined, the court adding:
'While I hold that the defendant is not prevented from constructing a 'Singer Sewing Machine,' still he cannot be permitted to do any act the necessary effect of which will be to intimate o to make any one believe that the machine which he constructs and sells is manufactured by the plaintiff. Neither has he the right to use any device which may be properly considered a trademark, so as to induce the public to believe that his machine has been manufactured by the plaintiff ”

“ Upon becoming owners of the Morey and Johnson patent, Singer applied for a reissue which covered this type of yielding pressure. It was granted on June 27, 1854. The Singer company’s acquisition of the Bachelder patent had given them control of the yielding pressure bar also.
Figure 33.—Singer Family Machine, 1858, head only. (Smithsonian photo 45524-F.)
Singer’s aggressive selling had begun to overcome the public’s suspicion of sewing machines. ”

“ He pioneered in the use of lavishly decorated sewing-machine showrooms when the company offices were expanded in the mid-1850s (fig. 30) . These were rich with carved walnut furniture, gilded ornaments, and carpeted floors, places in which Victorian women were not ashamed to be seen. The machines were demonstrated by pretty young women. The total effect was a new concept of selling, and Singer became the drum major of a new and coming industry that had many followers (see fig. 31) .
[Pg 35] Figure 34.—Grover and Baker’s patent model, 1851. (Smithsonian photo 32003-G.) ”

“ The public are warned against a counterfeit machine, made after an old abandoned model of our Machine. To get a genuine “SINGER SEWING MACHINE,” buy only of our authorized Agents, and see that each Machine has our Trade-Mark stamped on the arm. THE SINGER M’F’G CO., Principal Office, 34 Union Square, New York. ”

“ These manufacturers are bringing out a large variety of ornamental stitch machines which would appear to come within the terms of claims which may be awarded in the United States with respect of the aforementioned Singer and Gegauf patents. A proper enforcement of these patents may make it necessary to instigate patent suits against each of the importers in the United States, of whom there will perhaps be many. ”

“ Having determined the proper construction of the claim of the Cramer patent, which is relied upon, it remains only to consider whether, as correctly construed, infringement resulted from the employment by the Singer company of the device covered by the Diehl patent. ”

“ The founder of this most successful 19th-century company was Isaac Singer, a native of Pittstown, New York. [52] Successively a mechanic, an actor, and an inventor, Singer came to Boston in 1850 to promote his invention of a machine for carving printers’ wooden type. He exhibited the carving machine in Orson Phelps’ shop, where the Blodgett and Lerow machines were being manufactured.
Because the carving machine evoked but little interest, Singer turned his attention to the sewing machine as a device offering considerable opportunity for both improvement and financial reward. ”

“ This is because the Singer factories are not only equipped with tools and machinery better calculated to make good sewing machines than any other, but this equipment is unique and not to be found elsewhere. ”

“ For the Singer company it is contended that the availability of use of a vertical cross brace as a support for a sewing-machine treadle was apparent to any person possessing ordinary mechanical skill, that the invention in question if patentable was in no just sense one of a primary nature, and that the combination described by Cramer is to be restricted narrowly to the mere details of the mechanism described as constituting the combination. ”

“ Stanford, Singer's patent attorney, varies somewhat from this memorandum of Mr. Waterman, it is substantially the same. [5] That the approach to Gegauf was not casually laid is shown by a May 7, 1956, letter from Mr. Stanford to Patent Department employees of Singer in which he said, 'When in Italy we laid careful plans for Gegauf to be advised by a third party that Singer could best handle the patent situation if we owned the Gegauf U.S. Patent. Think it will bear fruit. This suggestion, with the U.S. attorney situation is pressure in the right direction.'
Mr. ”

“ The more that they are willing to pay, the more valuable you are to the managers who buy your services. Therefore reputation, of course, is an important point to the manager. An unknown singer can not hope to get the same fee as the celebrated singer no matter how fine the voice or the art. Mr. E. Falber and Mr. Martin Beck, who have been responsible for a great many of the engagements of great artists in vaudeville and who are great believers in fine music in vaudeville, have, through their high position in business, helped hundreds. But they can not help anyone who has nothing to sell. ”

“ The working or “Artesan” Skinners, however, made attempts on various occasions to obtain admission as such into the governing body of the Company, but such attempts invariably proved unsuccessful. In 1606, the “Artesan” Skinners applied for and obtained the grant of a new charter to the Company, providing for the election of a certain proportion of working skinners, and the admission to the Court of certain persons named ”

“ And the settlement of an interference in which the only interests at stake are those of the adversaries, as in the case of a dispute over relative priority only and where possible invalidity, because of known prior art, is not involved, may well be consistent with the general policy favoring settlement of litigation. But the present case involves a less innocuous setting. Singer and Gegauf agreed to settle an interference, at least in part, to prevent an open fight over validity. ”

“ The employment of a member of the Court of the Skinners’ Company to work for the Company for remuneration, whether professionally, commercially, or otherwise, is strictly prohibited. It is no doubt true that portions of the Companies’ own incomes are spent on entertainments, in accordance with the practice which has prevailed ever since the Companies existed at all ”

“ In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the order of precedence of the Companies was not clearly defined, and struggles took place between them from time to time, in which one Company sought to establish its superiority over another. The Skinners, who always ranked high among the chief Companies, fell out with the Fishmongers over this matter in 1339, and fighting took place, which had to be put down by force. ”

“ This manner of remitting funds was conventional and was the function which the New York branch of a foreign bank would be expected to facilitate. The New York courts held that creditors created by such a foreign exchange transaction, including respondent, were among those whom the New York statutes sought to protect out of the New York assets. In the Singer case, supra, we approved that holding. Unless every principle of res judicata is to be disregarded by this Court, it is bound by its holding that this is a preferred claim under the New York Banking Law. ”

“ For the purpose of having a more solid and substantial basis on which to operate the Review, the New York Women’s Publishing Company was incorporated in May, 1918; shares were sold at ten dollars each. The women who gave both monetary and moral support were the wives of business men who advised them how to conduct this organization in the proper fashion. Each month Mary Knoblauch opened her charming apartment for the regular meetings any corporation was required to hold. ”