
    HOGAN v. WESTMORELAND SPECIALTY CO. et al.
    (Circuit Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.
    April 26, 1907.)
    No. 12.
    1. Patents — Invention—Adjudication on Invalidity on Demurbee.
    A patent should be adjudged void on demurrer for lack of patentable invention apparent on its face only in exceptional cases, where the Question is free from doubt.
    2. Same — Deed ge por Salt ob Pepper.
    The Hogan patent, No. 752,903, for a dredge for salt or pepper, is not so manifestly devoid of invention on its face as to warrant its being declared void on demurrer to a bill for its infringement.
    Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
    For opinion below, see 145 Fed. 199,
    E. M. Marble, for appellant.
    Howard P. Denison and William A. Jones, for appellees.
    Before GRAY and BUFFINGTON, Circuit Judges, and HAN-NING, District Judge.
   BUFFINGTON, Circuit Judge.

The court below sustained a demurrer to the bill on the ground the patent was on its face void for lack of patentable novelty. While such decree may be entered where a case is clear from doubt, we are of opinion the present was not one of that character. It resembles the cases of Caldwell v. Powell, 73 Fed. 488, 19 C. C. A. 593, and Chinnock v. Paterson, 113 Fed. 531, 50 C. C. A. 384. Following our decisions in those cases, we here hold the demurrer should be overruled, and the questions involved decided on final hearing.

The decree of the lower court is therefore reversed, and the case remanded to the Circuit Court, with instruction to allow the appellees time within which to answer.  