Girdler Corp. v. E. I. DuPont De Nemours & Co.

59 F. Supp. 583, 65 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 398, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2411
CourtDistrict Court, D. Delaware
DecidedMarch 23, 1945
DocketCiv. No. 414
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 59 F. Supp. 583 (Girdler Corp. v. E. I. DuPont De Nemours & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Girdler Corp. v. E. I. DuPont De Nemours & Co., 59 F. Supp. 583, 65 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 398, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2411 (D. Del. 1945).

Opinion

LEAHY, District Judge.

Plaintiff sues for declaratory judgment that defendant’s Pitman Reissue- Patent No. 22,301 is invalid. Defendant counterclaimed, charging contributory infringement. The matter is here on summary judgment on a single issue. Argument on the pleadings, affidavits and depositions.

Defendant’s original patent was issued July 20, 1937, on an application filed October 30, 1935. The rule of the patent is concerned with the use of high-frequency electric heating apparatus to “activate” or “energize” adhesive cement used in joining “surfaces” together. In particular, the patent refers to joining parts of human footwear; but general applicability to heavy leather belting, plywood, wall board and safety glass is also mentioned. The specification concludes its discussion of suitable materials by stating “other applications in diversified arts where two or more materials are laminated will be obvious.” The process disclosed relates to coating materials with suitable cement, placing them in a press between electrodes of high-frequency electric heating apparatus, causing the cement to set.1 There are two typical claims. Claim 24, the broadest, [585]*585reads: “A process for joining a plurality of parts with an adhesive, comprising heating the said adhesive by subjecting it to a high frequency electric field so as to energize the adhesive, thereby causing the parts to adhere.” Claim 12 reads: “The process of joining surfaces which comprises placing the surfaces to be joined together, with a film of adhesive therebetween and placing the composite parts between two plates of a condenser connected to a source of electrical current having a frequency above 100,000 cycles; per second.” 2 Plaintiff’s original motion for summary judgment was based upon several grounds; and while practically all of these grounds were urged by plaintiff at the argument for summary judgment, the argument was restricted to the ground appearing in paragraph 7(d) of plaintiff’s motion. The ground reads: “It [the Reissue Patent] is for a different alleged invention from that of the original patent of which it purports to be a reissue.”

1. The statute3 governing reissue patents has been most recently construed by the Supreme Court in U. S. Industrial Chemicals, Inc. v. Carbide & Carbon Chemical Corp. (Mr. Justice Roberts), 315 U.S. 668, 62 S.Ct. 839, 844, 86 L.Ed. 1105. The patent there involved the process of producing ethylene oxide. The reaction called for the introduction of water by an operator in contradistinction to the formation of water as a by-product of the reaction. After the patent issued, it was observed that reaction occurred without the addition of water as taught by the original patent. The rule of the reissue patent stated that, in addition to that formed by the reaction, water might be added if desired. In short, water addition in the original patent was mandatory; in the reissue it was permissive. Both inferior courts sustained the patent. The Supreme Court, holding the reissue patent invalid because it was not for the same invention, said: “As the Circuit Court of Appeals held, the original specification and claims treated the voluntary introduction of water into the reaction chamber as a necessary step in the process whereas such introduction is made permissive by the reissue. We agree with that court’s view that there is thus a difference between the procedure described in the two documents. But we cannot agree with its conclusion that the difference is so insubstantial as not to invalidate the new claims 8 and 9. On the face of the papers the process described in the original patent included a step not designated as optional or desirable but described and claimed as an integral part of the whole operation. In contrast, the reissue treats this step as immaterial and mentions the introduction of water as for the mere purpose of controlling the temperature in the reaction zone — a thought not even suggested by the specification of the original patent which, on the contrary, in its very first sentence, speaks of the simultaneous action of the oxygen of air and of water. * * * We hold that the reissue is not for the same invention described and claimed and intended to be secured by the original patent and is, therefore, void. * * * This dispute must be resolved by a comparison of the disclosures of the two instruments. If that comparison leads to the conclusion that the reissue is not for the same invention as the original, the reissue is void as not within the terms of the statute.”

[586]*5862. Cridlebaugh v. Rudolph (Judges Biggs, Jones and Goodrich), 3 Cir., 131 F.2d 795, 799, following the U. S. Industrial Chemicals, Inc. v. Carbide & Carbon Chemical Corp. case, supra, was concerned with fowl blinkers intended to prevent birds from picking one another. The blinkers consisted of two plates, one on each side of the beak, fastened by a pin passing through the fowl’s breather openings. The reissue claims referred to the pivotal function of the retaining pin which was not claimed in the original patent. The holding of invalidity was because both patents were not for the same invention. It was stated: “Patent Office decisions relevant to the existence of grounds for a reissue, when based on disputed questions of fact, are of course conclusive. But where it is apparent from the face of the records that no ground for reissue existed, the courts may so rule as a matter of law. * * * Whether the original patent was ‘wholly or partly inoperative or invalid1, and whether the reissue is for the ‘same invention’ are matters for the court to determine upon examination of the original and the reissue patents. * *' * The exaction of the requirement that an original patent and a reissue must cover one and the same invention was clearly indicated in the recent case of United Industrial Chemicals, Inc. v. Carbide & Carbon Chemicals Corp., 315 U.S. 668, 676, 62 S.Ct. 839, 843, 86 L.Ed. 1105. There Mr. Justice Roberts said that ‘If there be failure of disclosure in the original patent of matter claimed in the reissue, it will not aid the patentee that the new matter covered by the reissue was within his knowledge when he applied for his original patent. And it is not enough that an invention might have been claimed in the original patent because it was suggested or indicated in the specification. It must appear from the face of the instrument that what is covered by the reissue was intended to have been covered and secured by the original.’ It follows therefore that the reissue patent here involved is invalid.”

3. Defendant insists it has narrowed its claims and that a presumption exists that its reissue patent has been granted for the “‘same invention”. Defendant’s direct reliance is on Gilbert Spruance Co. v. Ellis-Foster Co. (Judges Biggs, Clark and Buffington), 3 Cir., 114 F.2d 771. There, claims 3, 4, 5, 11 and 16 of the original read on monobasic carboxylic acids.

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Bluebook (online)
59 F. Supp. 583, 65 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 398, 1945 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2411, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/girdler-corp-v-e-i-dupont-de-nemours-co-ded-1945.