Delco Chemicals, Inc. v. Cee-Bee Chemical Co.

157 F. Supp. 583, 115 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 403, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2551
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedDecember 11, 1957
DocketCiv. No. 17387
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 157 F. Supp. 583 (Delco Chemicals, Inc. v. Cee-Bee Chemical Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Delco Chemicals, Inc. v. Cee-Bee Chemical Co., 157 F. Supp. 583, 115 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 403, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2551 (S.D. Cal. 1957).

Opinion

MATHES, District Judge.

Plaintiff brought this action for a declaration of invalidity and non-infringement as to United States Letters Patent No. 2,653,116. 28 U.S.C. §§ 1338(a), 2201. Defendant answered with a counterclaim for damages for alleged infringement. Plaintiff now moves for a summary judgment declaring the patent invalid. Fed.R.Civ.P., Rule 56, 28 U.S. C.A.

The motion is based upon the pleadings, various affidavits, a copy of the patent in suit, the “file wrapper”, and copies of various prior-art patents. Affidavits have been filed in opposition to the motion.

There is no issue of fact, “genuine” or otherwise, as to the contents of the patent in suit, the contents of the file-wrapper record of Patent Office proceedings leading to the issuance thereof, or the contents of the various prior-art patents.

The patent in suit — Letters Patent No. 2,653,116, covering a “Method of Removing Sealant from Fuel Tanks” — issued September 22, 1953, upon an application filed March 16, 1949, for a patent on both “Method and Apparatus for Removing Sealant from Fuel Tanks”. The file wrapper discloses that the first action of the Patent Office was to declare that “The method and the apparatus are distinct, each from the other * * * and all claims are rejected on the ground of misjoinder.”

Next, claims limited to the method were rejected as unpatentable over the prior art cited. Further method claims were then filed, then amended, then rewritten; personal interviews with the examiner were had; associate counsel appeared; and at length, the Patent Office examiner allowed the eight claims appearing in the letters as issued.

Interestingly enough, the specifications and drawings of patent No. 2,653,-116, issued for the “method” alone, are the same as those in the original application for both “method and apparatus.” Indeed, the opening words of the specifications in the letters issued for the method alone are: “This invention relates to a method and apparatus for removing the sealant that lines the interiors of integral fuel tanks, particularly of aircraft.” Patent 2,653,116, col. 1, 11. 1-5.

In the language of the defendant’s brief in opposition to the motion for summary judgment, the patented process is a “three-way method, including, first, spraying a volatile solvent against the sealant in an aircraft tank; secondly, spraying the solvent with a ‘water-rinsable, solvent-miscible’ material; and thirdly, applying a water spray of a higher pressure. The second and third sprays may be applied successively or simultaneously.”

Thus, defendant’s fuel-tank cleaning process can be envisioned as embracing either two or three steps, depending on whether the water rinsing accompanies or follows the “water-rinsable, solvent-miscible” spray.

Plaintiff’s motion for summary declaration of invalidity is made upon the grounds that: “The method claimed by the patent in suit is fully and clearly anticipated by prior art which was not cited or considered by the Commissioner of Patents while the application for the patent was pending * * *. The method claimed by the patent in suit is devoid of patentable novelty * * *. There does not exist any genuine issue as to material facts necessary to consideration and determination of this motion, since invalidity of the patent in suit is clearly apparent from a comparison of said patent in suit with said prior art which was not considered by the Patent Office but *' * * is before the Court in this motion.”

It is often declared generally that validity of a patent is a question of fact. United States v. Esnault-Pelterie, 1936, 299 U.S. 201, 205, 57 S.Ct. 159, 81 L.Ed. 123; Faulkner v. Gibbs, 9 Cir., 1948, 170 F.2d 34, 37, affirmed per curiam 1949, 338 U.S. 267, 70 S.Ct. 25, 94 L.Ed. 62. But the broad question of validity may encompass a variety of issues, both factual and legal. 35 U.S.C. § 102.

[587]*587Whether a method or “process” upon which letters patent have issued is “new and useful”, and whether first “invented or discovered” by the patentee, are questions of fact. 35 U.S.C. §§ 100, 101; Oriental Foods v. Chun King Sales, 9 Cir., 1957, 244 F.2d 909, 913-914; Hall v. Wright, 9 Cir., 1957, 240 F.2d 787, 790; Hansen v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 9 Cir., 1956, 238 F.2d 336, 339.

In the ease at bar, the specific question whether “the invention was pat-tented * * * in this country, more than one year prior to the date of the application for patent in the United States * * *” 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) is one of fact.

The burden of proof necessary to establish invalidity for anticipation, or for other want of invention, rests of course upon the party asserting it. Marconi Wireless Tel. Co. of America v. United States, 1943, 320 U.S. 1, 34, 63 S.Ct. 1393, 87 L.Ed. 1731; Smith v. Hall, 1937, 301 U.S. 216, 222, 232-233, 57 S.Ct. 711, 81 L.Ed. 1049; Radio Corp. of America v. Radio Eng. Lab., 1934, 293 U.S. 1, 7-8, 54 S.Ct. 752, 78 L.Ed. 1453; Eibel Process Co. v. Minnesota & Ontario Paper Co., 1923, 261 U.S. 45, 60, 43 S.Ct. 322, 67 L.Ed. 523; The Barbed Wire Patent [Washburn & Moen Mfg. Co. v. Beat ’Em All Barbed-Wire Co.], 1892, 143 U.S. 275, 284-285, 12 S.Ct. 443, 36 L.Ed. 154; Schmeiser v. Thomasian, 9 Cir., 1955, 227 F.2d 875, 876; Whiteman v. Mathews, 9 Cir., 1954, 216 F.2d 712, 716.

But, as the Court said in Bates v. Coe, 1878, 98 U.S. 31, 25 L.Ed. 68, “the patent offered in evidence * * * will be held to be prior, if it is of prior date to the patent in suit, unless the patent in suit is accompanied by the application for the same, or unless the complainant introduces parol proof to show that his invention was actually made prior to the date of the [earlier] patent, or prior to the time the [earlier] application was filed.” 98 U.S. at page 33; see Alexander Milburn Co. v. Davis-Bournonville Co., 1926, 270 U.S. 390, 399-400, 46 S.Ct. 324, 70 L.Ed. 651.

Questions as to validity, such, as anticipation or other want of invention, as a rule present “genuine” issues-of fact which must be litigated and adjudicated by plenary trial so long as the presumption of validity is available to-the defender of the patent. See Radio Corp. of America v. Radio Eng. Lab., supra, 293 U.S. at page 9, 54 S.Ct. 752; Hycon Mfg. Co. v. H. Koch & Sons, 9 Cir., 219 F.2d 353, 356, certiorari denied 1955, 349 U.S. 953, 75 S.Ct. 881, 99 L.Ed. 1278. For, although disputable, the presumption of validity cannot be dispelled without an evaluation of the evidence to the contrary.

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157 F. Supp. 583, 115 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 403, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2551, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/delco-chemicals-inc-v-cee-bee-chemical-co-casd-1957.