Cochran v. Kresock

530 F.2d 385, 188 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 553, 1976 CCPA LEXIS 192
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedFebruary 5, 1976
DocketPatent Appeal No. 75-591
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 530 F.2d 385 (Cochran v. Kresock) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cochran v. Kresock, 530 F.2d 385, 188 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 553, 1976 CCPA LEXIS 192 (ccpa 1976).

Opinion

LANE, Judge.

This is an appeal from the decision of the Patent and Trademark Office Board of Patent Interferences1 awarding priority of invention to the junior party Kre-sock after finding that Kresock had attained an actual reduction to practice of his invention on August 23, 1968, and that subsequent to that date he had not abandoned, suppressed, or concealed his invention within the meaning of 35 U.S.C. § 102(g). This appeal also seeks review of the limitation of the scope of additional discovery granted by the board to the senior party Cochran under 37 CFR 1.287(c). We affirm.

Background

This is a two-party interference proceeding between junior party Kresock’s patent No. 3,654,3842 and senior party Cochran’s application serial No. 135,935.3 Cochran copied the counts of the interference from the Kresock patent.

The Subject Matter of the Counts

The invention is a circuit for improving flesh tones in a color television receiver.4 A standard color television composite signal includes, inter alia, a wide-band brightness signal, commonly called the luminance signal, a subcarrier signal modulated by a pair of difference signals, commonly called the chrominance signal, and a reference burst signal. In a color receiver the reference burst signal is detected and used to control a local oscillator which provides output signals of the proper frequency and phase to a pair of demodulators for synchronously recovering the transmitted color difference signals. The demodulated col- or difference signals are then matrixed with the brightness (luminance) signal for developing the red, blue, and green signals for the color picture tube. In theory the reference burst signal would always have a precise phase relationship with respect to the modulated subcarrier signal resulting in a proper demodulation of the color difference signals in the receiver. If, for any reason, however, this precise relationship does not exist, demodulation errors will occur, resulting in a shift in the hue of the reproduced colors. Often this hue shift is unnoticed by a viewer because he does not have any preconceived concept of what the correct hue should be. However, in the case of flesh tones a hue shift can readily be detected by a viewer. The circuit involved in this interference reduces, with respect to flesh tones, the effects of phase errors between the reference burst signal and the subcarrier signal by altering the phases of the local oscillator signals fed to the synchronous demodula-tors to spread the axes along which the color difference signals are demodulated, and by altering the relative gains of the demodulator circuits.

The Counts

There are twelve counts in this interference which correspond to claims 1 to 12 of Kresock’s patent. Count 1 is illustrative:

1. In a color television system, apparatus for processing a color television chrominance signal comprising:
reference signal means for supplying A [sic] fixed frequency reference signal at a nominally predetermined phase;
chrominance channel means for supplying a chrominance signal bearing information in the form of [389]*389sideband components of a carrier wave at said fixed frequency;
detection means coupled to said reference signal means and said chrominance channel means for detecting the components of said chro-minance signal located at a plurality of phases relative to said nominally predetermined phase, each of said plurality of phases having a predetermined phasic displacement from the remainder of said plurality of phases;
circuit means for switehably altering the phasic displacement of at least one of said plurality of phases from at least one other of said plurality of phases and for altering the amplitude of one of said detected components relative to at least one other of said detected components; and
utilization means coupled to said detection means for utilizing said detected components.

The Record

The senior party Cochran was accorded the benefit of the filing date (March 17, 1970) of his parent application serial No. 20,311 and chose to rely on that date as a constructive reduction to practice. Kresock took testimony and introduced evidence to prove a prior actual reduction to practice.

The uncontested testimony and evidence introduced by Kresock indicate that Kresock began work on his invention in July, 1968, culminating in a demonstration of his flesh correction circuit to his superiors and co-workers at Mag-navox on August 23, 1968. At the demonstration the Kresock circuit was selectively switched in circuit in a commercial television receiver, and results were observed on the receiver’s picture tube for a variety of program sources, including live broadcasts, color slide material, and color bar patterns. Those present at the demonstration who testified stated that they observed a flesh tone correction when the Kresock circuit was switched in circuit over a wide variation in phase errors between the reference burst signal and the color difference subcarrier. The evidence further shows that although the Kresock circuit improved flesh tones, it also caused a degradation in the reproduction of other colors, particularly of the color green, which was also observed by those present at the demonstration. Following the demonstration several memoranda were written by Magnavox personnel commenting on the Kresock circuit and noting in particular the fact that the circuit achieved good flesh color correction over wide variations in phase error at the expense of a degradation in the reproduction of other colors. The Kresock circuit was dismantled after the demonstration in September, 1968, and there is no evidence in the record which indicates that any further work was thereafter performed on this circuit.

The record further shows that after Kresock’s circuit was demonstrated and then dismantled, a period of approximately 9 months passed before Kresock prepared a patent disclosure of his invention in June and July of 1969. This patent disclosure was held by Knauer, a Magnavox employee, until a meeting of the Magnavox patent committee which occurred between April 1 and April 3, 1970. At that meeting a decision was made to file a patent application on the Kresock invention. There is no evidence to indicate why Knauer held the patent disclosure from July, 1969, until April, 1970.

Prior to the April, 1970 meeting of the Magnavox patent committee, RCA commercially introduced its version of a flesh correction circuit, which commercial introduction was reported in a periodical named Television-Digest (hereinafter TV-Digest) in March, 1970. The evidence shows that Magnavox personnel, at some point in time, learned of the specific details of the RCA circuit. However, there is no substantial evidence in the record to indicate whether those present at the Magnavox patent committee meeting in April, 1970, knew of the specific details of the RCA circuit when a decision was made to file a patent application on Kresock’s invention. [390]

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Bluebook (online)
530 F.2d 385, 188 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 553, 1976 CCPA LEXIS 192, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cochran-v-kresock-ccpa-1976.