Calgon, Inc. v. Mokton Salt Co.

177 F. Supp. 712
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 29, 1959
DocketCiv. A. No. 4955
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 177 F. Supp. 712 (Calgon, Inc. v. Mokton Salt Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Calgon, Inc. v. Mokton Salt Co., 177 F. Supp. 712 (M.D. Pa. 1959).

Opinion

FOLLMER, District Judge.

Plaintiff, Calgon, Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation (hereafter referred to as “Calgon”), brings this action against the [713]*713defendant, Morton Salt Company, an Illinois corporation (hereafter referred to as “Morton”), seeking a declaratory judgment against Morton with a determination of non-infringement of a patent owned by Morton in the use of certain unpatented chemicals supplied to its customers by Calgon and used by them in accordance with practices recommended by Calgon, and likewise that said patent be declared invalid. The defendant, Morton, by counterclaim conversely seeks a determination of validity of said patent, as well as a finding of infringement by Calgon through its activities and the practices recommended to its customers in connection with the sale of such chemicals.

Calgon is engaged in the sale of chemicals, including two phosphate chemicals for use in brine manufacture. The chemicals involved are sold under the trade names “Calsofix” and “Keyiex.” Calsofix, chemically, is sodium hexametaphosphate. It has also been sold under the trade name of “Calgon.” Keyiex, chemically, is a sodium-calcium hexametaphosphate. The difference between them is that Calsofix is readily soluble in water whereas Keyiex is slowly soluble.

Morton is engaged in what may be broadly termed the manufacture of salt, is the owner of salt mines, and is the owner of the patent involved in this action.

The original applicant for the patent was Rock L. Comstock who, during the pendency of the application, made an assignment to the Bay Chemical Company, Inc., by which he was employed. The application was filed January 25, 1944, and the patent in suit1 for “Preparation of Purified Brine” and numbered 2,433,-601, issued December 30, 1947. Bay Chemical Company, Inc., operated a salt mine in the State of Louisiana, and was the owner of this patent when Morton acquired the Bay Chemical Company and the patent has remained the property of Morton throughout this action.

Comstock states that his “invention relates to the preparation of purified brine and more particularly to the preparation of sodium chloride brine low in calcium and sulfate radicals from crude sodium chloride or rock salt containing substantial quantities of calcium sulfate.”

The original application was filed on January 25, 1944, and was rejected on October 26, 1944.2 On August 19, 1946, after an amendment, there was what was termed a “final rejection” 3 of the twenty claims then filed. An amendment4 was filed on February 3, 1947, which was in effect a rewritten application which included the ten claims ultimately allowed. The patent was finally granted December 30, 1947. The basic claims 1, 5, and 6 may be stated by setting forth claim 1 and noting the variations in claims 5 and 6 as follows:

(1) In a method of preparing brine in which the materials brought into contact to form said brine are water and a solid water soluble salt (claims 5 and 6 substitute “solid sodium chloride” for “a solid water-soluble salt”) containing a substantial amount of water-soluble calcium sulfate as an impurity, the improvement which comprises forming a brine low in sulfate radical and calcium radical by adding to one of said materials before bringing said materials into contact a small amount (claim 6 substitutes “an amount between approximately 0.051 and 0.25% by weight based on the sodium chloride dissolved in said water” for “a small amount”) of water soluble alkali metal compound (claim 6 substitutes “salt” for “compound”) selected from the group consisting of alkali metal carbonate and alkali metal phosphate and which reacts with calcium sulfate in aqueous solution to precipitate a water-insoluble calcium compound, [714]*714thereafter bringing said materials into contact to dissolve salt (claims 5 and 6 substitute “sodium chloride” for “salt”) in said water and separating residual solid material from the resulting brine.

Claim 2 is:

“The method defined in claim 1, in which the amount of water-soluble alkali metal compound added to one of said materials is between approximately 0.051 and 0.25% by weight based on the salt dissolved in said water.”

Claim 3 is:

“The method defined in claim 1, in which the amount of water-soluble alkali metal compound added to one of said materials is between approximately 0.0014 and 0.0057 pound per gallon of water used to dissolve said salt.”

Claim 4 is:

“The method defined in claim 1, in which the water used to dissolve said salt has a pH of at least 7.”

Claim 7 is:

“The method defined in claim 6, in which the water-soluble alkali metal salt added to one of said materials is an alkali metal carbonate.” Claim 8 is:
“The method defined in claim 6, in which the water-soluble alkali metal salt added to one of said materials is sodium carbonate.”

Claim 9 is:

“The method defined in claim 6, in which the water-soluble alkali metal salt added to one of said materials is trisodium phosphate.”

Claim 10 is:

“The method defined in claim 6, in which the water used to dissolve said solid sodium chloride has a pH of at least 7.”

The first question is whether the practices recommended by Calgon to its customers in the sale to them of an unpatented chemical, sodium hexametaphosphate, constitutes infringement. In the original rejection of October 26,1944, one of the patents cited by the examiner was the Smith Patent No. 2,108,783,5 issued February 15, 1938, for a “Process of Separating Inorganic Salts From Solutions.” Smith recognized that salt as mined or brines made therefrom contained impurities such as alkaline earth metal salts and salts of divalent heavy metals. Referring particularly to the calcium compounds, he states:6

“I have found that the calcium sulphate or other calcium salt present in the solution of sodium chloride as an impurity may be prevented from crystallizing out of solution with the sodium chloride upon heating the solution, if an alkali-metal hexametaphosphate is added to the solution. * * *.” (Emphasis supplied.)

He further states that he prefers sodium hexametaphosphate.

On November 7, 1944, the Bay Chemical Company was informed of the rejection, whereupon on January 16, 1945, Comstock submitted a report to Mr. Lippman, the plant manager, in which, in discussing the Smith Patent, he said:

“ * * * The use of the ionization retardant hexametaphosphate is here shown to be a distinctly different action from the solution inhibitor employed in this application in being of opposite purpose to prevent precipitation rather than to prevent solution.”

Lippman, commenting on the Com-stock report, submitted a report on March 23, 1945, in which he stated:

“Smith does not add a precipitant for calcium radical, but adds a substance which is just the opposite,— that prevents precipitation thereof. This is a firm distinction from Com-stock. * * * The biggest distinction, of course, is that sodium hexa[715]

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177 F. Supp. 712, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/calgon-inc-v-mokton-salt-co-pamd-1959.