Read Ed McBain_Matthew Hope 12 for Free Online

for a device made to
look
like eyeglasses?”
    “I’ll make no such stipulation,” Brackett said.
    “Then might Mr. Brackett refrain from
calling
them eyeglasses, when clearly…”
    “What should I call eyeglasses but eyeglasses?”
    “Let him call them what he chooses, Mr. Hope. Let’s just get on with this, shall we?”
    “Thank you, Your Honor,” Brackett said, and turned back to the witness. “Dr. Nettleton, are you aware that a design for eyeglasses
     remarkably similar to yours appeared in an industry technical journal many years ago? Would you
still
say you had no access?”
    “I never saw my device anywhere.”
    “Do you
read
trade journals?”
    “I do.”
    “Do you read
Optics and Lenses
?”
    “I’ve read it on occasion.”
    “Have you read the March 1987 issue of that magazine?”
    “No.”
    “Your Honor, I ask the Court to take judicial notice that this magazine I hold in my hand is the March 1987 issue of
Optics and Lenses.
”
    “Mr. Hope? Do you dispute this?”
    “No, Your Honor.”
    “Judicial notice taken. Move it into evidence as exhibit A for the defense.”
    “Dr. Nettleton, I ask you to turn to page twenty-one of the magazine, would you do that for me, please?”
    Nettleton leafed through the magazine, found the page, and looked up.
    “Do you see the title of the article on that page?”
    “I do.”
    “Would you read it to the Court, please?”
    “The whole article?”
    “Just the title, please.”
    “The title is ‘The Use of Corrective Lenses in the Treatment of Strabismus.’”
    “Thank you. Dr. Nettleton, would you call your eyeglasses a way of using corrective lenses in the treatment of strabismus?”
    “No, I would not.”
    “Well, isn’t Ms. Commins’s bear cross-eyed?”
    “It is.”
    “And isn’t ‘strabismus’ the proper medical term for this condition?”
    “Yes, but…”
    “And don’t your eyeglasses
correct
this condition?”
    “Yes, but…”
    “Then wouldn’t you agree that your design makes use of corrective lenses in the treatment of…”
    “Mirrors. It makes use of mirrors.”
    “Lenses, mirrors, all have to do with optics.”
    “A mirror isn’t a lens. A mirror is a surface that forms an image by
reflection.
A lens forms an image by
focusing
rays of light. They are two separate and distinct…”
    “Doesn’t your design demonstrate one way of treating the condition known as strabismus?”
    “Only in the very loosest possible sense. We’re not talking about
real
strabismus here, we’re…”
    “Yes or no, please.”
    “Given the widest possible interpretation…”
    “Your Honor?”
    “Yes or no, Dr. Nettleton.”
    “All right, yes.”
    “Would you please turn to page twenty-five?”
    Nettleton turned several pages, and again looked up.
    “Do you see the drawings on that page?”
    “I do.”
    “Would you describe those drawings as specifications for lenses designed to correct the condition of strabismus?”
    Nettleton studied the drawings.
    “Yes, I would.”
    “Would you say they’re identical to the drawings you made for Miss Commins?”
    “Absolutely not.”
    “Would you say they’re remarkably similar?”
    “No, not at all. These are
lenses
designed to correct strabismus. My
mirrors
were designed to create an optical illusion.”
    “These specifications were published in an industry journal in March of 1987. Would you agree that you had a reasonable opportunity
     to have seen them?”
    “Yes, but I
didn’t
see them. And even if I had…”
    “By comparison, would you say that
your
design adds more than a trivial amount of creativity to the design in this magazine?”
    “I would say they’re entirely different.”
    “Oh? In what way?”
    “To begin with, the design in the magazine is for
eyeglasses
”
    “Well, isn’t
your
design for eyeglasses?”
    Nettleton rolled his eyes.
    “Your Honor,” Brackett said.
    “Your Honor,” I said.
    “Answer the question, please.”
    “My design is for