Franzus Takes Its Steamer Dispute to Court

A hand-held clothes steamer became the subject of a federal court dispute reported in the News-Item on December 23, 1969. Franzus Industries, Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation with its principal business at 214 East Independence Street in Shamokin, had brought the action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

The complaint concerned U.S. Patent 3,436,851, the steaming and pressing device invented by Jack J. Gilbert and assigned in the issued patent to Bernard Frank of Shamokin. The newspaper said the complaint asserted a later assignment from Frank to Franzus. It named Abraham and Straus, Federated Department Stores, Oserow Products Company, Hobi and Amtech Creations as defendants.

According to the article, Franzus alleged infringement through the making and sale of competing devices. It also accused the defendants of promotional practices likely to confuse buyers about the origin of the products. The complaint described Franzus's own device under the name Mr. Wrinkles-Away, bringing advertising and product identity into the dispute alongside the patent's technical claims.

Franzus sought an injunction, an accounting of profits and damages. These were requested remedies, not relief already awarded. The report captures a local business at the beginning of a legal action; it supplies neither the defendants' response nor a ruling that the allegations were true.