CITE:  122 F. 467
CMON:  April 1903
PLAIN: Hocke et al.
DEFND: New York Cent. & H. R. R. Co.
COURT: Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
DATE:  April 9, 1903

HISTORY:
Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern
District of New York.
For opinion below, see 117 Fed. 320.

SUMMARY:
  Obvious business methods not patentable.

JUDGE: WALLACE, Circuit Judge
Before WALLACE and LACOMBE, Circuit Judges.

DECISION:

Error is assigned of the decree of the court below adjudging the patent
in suit void upon its face because the subject-matter was destitute of
patentable novelty. The patent is for "means for securing railroads and
shippers against loss of freight", and was granted Joseph Babbitt
Mockridge, March 14, 1893.

The object and general nature of the alleged invention is thus stated in
the preamble:

  "The object of the invention is to provide a new and improved means for  
  securing railroads and shippers of merchandise against loss of freight,
  by preventing the merchandise from being sent to wrong places, and
  keeping a record of the merchandise loaded into a railroad car, so that
  it can be easily traced, until it finally arrives at its proper
  destination." "The invention consists in means by which the shipping
  of the merchandise is controlled in such a manner as to prevent the
  merchandise from being loaded into the wrong car at the shipping
  station; and, secondly, in case it should happen that a package is
  wrongly loaded into a car, then to detect at once the respective car
  into which it was wrongly placed."

The claims of the patent are as follows :

    "(1) The means for securing against loss of freight consisting of
    a receipt or other like document containing characters indicating
    the car designed to receive the merchandise, a separate independent
    check or ticket containing duplicate characters of the ones on the
    said receipt so that the check and receipt control each other, and
    a receptacle held temporarily on the car, and adapted to receive
    the ticket, bearing the number of the car on which the receptacle
    is held, the ticket being deposited in the receptacle at the time
    the merchandise indicated on the ticket is loaded in the car,
    substantially as shown and described.

    "(2) The means for securing against loss of freight, consisting of
    a shipping receipt, way bill, or other like document containing
    characters indicating serial numbers and the number of the
    transporting medium, a separate independent ticket or check
    containing duplicate characters of the ones on the said receipt,
    so that check and receipt control each other, and a receptacle
    placed temporarily on the numbered transportation medium to receive
    the correspondingly numbered checks or tickets at the time the
    merchandise indicated by the serial number on this ticket is placed
    in the corresponding transporting medium, substantially as shown
    and described.

    "(3) The means for securing against loss of freight, consisting of
    a receipt or other like document containing characters indicating
    the car designed to receive the merchandise, and characters to
    designate the merchandise to be shipped, and a separate independent
    ticket or check containing sets of characters which are a duplicate
    of the characters on the said receipt or document, substantially as
    shown and described."

The means described in the specification may be briefly summarized as
follows: (1) The cars upon which the merchandise is to be shipped are
numbered, the numeral upon each car designating a particular destination;
(2) a shipping receipt prepared at the shipping office containing besides
the usual descriptive matter the number of the car into which the package
is to be loaded, and designating the package by a given number; (3) a
check prepared simultaneously with the shipping receipt, containing the
number of the car and the numbers of the packages; (4) a removable box
placed upon the car for receiving the checks of the merchandise loaded
into it. The shipping receipts may be numbered in serial order, when
several packages are to be sent to the same address, according to the
order of the reception of the packages, and when this is done the check
is numbered correspondingly.

These means are used as follows: The truckman, who has say three or four
packages of merchandise to deliver to a particular car, receives from the
shipping office the check which tells him to which car to take them.
He takes them to that car, and deposits the check in the removable box.
When the several cars have been loaded, the removable boxes are examined
by the clerk in charge of the station, and the checks therein are compared
with the shipping receipts. By this examination, if the truckman has made
an error and delivered the packages into the wrong car, the error is
promptly detected. The specification mentions further means, consisting
of a printing apparatus to be used for printing upon the shipping receipt
and the check simultaneously the corresponding descriptive matter.  
As this apparatus is not made a feature of any of the claims, it is
to be regarded as nonessential.

It is as difficult to classify the subject of the patent as it was in the  
case of Jacobs v. Baker, 7 Wall. 295, 19 L. Ed. 2OO, and Munson v. Mayor,
etc., 124 U.S. 601, 8 Sup. Ct. 622, 31 L. Ed. 586; but whether the patent
is to be regarded as one for an improvement in an art, or as one for a
machine, we are of opinion that it discloses nothing of patentable novelty.
It purports to disclose to the public, and especially to that part of the
public engaged in the business of shipping and transportation, an improved
method of preventing and rectifying mistakes in the transaction of their
business. Such improvements generally suggest themselves as their necessity
becomes apparent to the intelligent and enterprising men who usually
conduct this kind of business, and it would be surprising, indeed, if the
long and extensive experience of forwarders and carriers had not discovered
so obvious a method as that which is disclosed. What the patentee seems to
have done has been to provide evidence that a certain parcel or lot of
merchandise has been depositec! in a pre-determined place, or, if it has
not been deposited there, to denote at what other place it has been
deposited. There are various ways of doing this, so familiar that the
court can take judicial notice of them. One is by having the person with
whom the parcel is deposited preserve a record of it, to be returned for
examination to the sender. Another is by having a record kept by a tallyman.
Another is by having the truckman or other person making delivery return
a voucher from the receiver to the shipping clerk. A common instance is
that adopted by express companies who provide their expressmen with a book
in which, when the parcel is delivered at a store or house, the receiver
signs his name. The patentee has provided a box in which the truckman is
to deposit the voucher instead of returning it to the shipping clerk, and
has located it at the most convenient place, and where there is the least
likelihood of his making the mistake of depositing the voucher in the
wrong one.  All this evidences good judgment upon the part of one who is
experienced in the particular business, but it does not rise to the level  
of invention.

The decree is affirmed, with costs.