Graves v. Kell-Dot Industries, Inc.

229 F. Supp. 143, 141 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 632, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9143
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedMay 14, 1964
DocketNo. 14152-2
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 229 F. Supp. 143 (Graves v. Kell-Dot Industries, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Graves v. Kell-Dot Industries, Inc., 229 F. Supp. 143, 141 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 632, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9143 (W.D. Mo. 1964).

Opinion

GIBSON, Chief Judge.

This is an action for patent infringement in which jurisdiction is based on §§ 1338(a) and 1400(b), Title 28 United States Code. Plaintiff’s amended complaint alleges that his patent #2,842,072, is being infringed both equivalently and actually by defendants’ food processing machine.

Plaintiff’s patent describes a food processing machine for extruding and puffing cereal meal. The machine consists essentially of a housing with a bore therein, a rotatable member within the bore with a helical ridge on the periphery, a single extrusion die plate with a plurality of extrusion holes therein, each of the holes having a conical inlet connected to a cylindrical or elongate portion extending through the die plate, an annular flange on the periphery of the die plate with holes therein for securing the die plate to the housing, and a knife intermittently passing the outlet ends of the extrusion holes for cutting the extruded material in sections. The novelty of plaintiff’s machine lies primarily in the employment of a single rather than a multiple head-plate arrangement, which will prebake the cereal product.

The machine of defendants’ is substantially the same as that described in plaintiff’s patent, with the major deviation from plaintiff’s machine being the design and configuration of the extrusion holes contained in the headplate. Where plaintiff’s extrusion holes are essentially composed of a tapered inlet portion connected to a cylindrical or elongate portion, defendants’ machine utilizes an extrusion hole which is tapered in its en[144]*144tirety. This extrusion hole used by defendants produces a product which to the eye of the Court is identical to that produced by the plaintiff’s machine.

Plaintiff contends that defendants’ food processing machine infringes claims one through four both directly and equivalently, and infringes claim five directly. Defendants advance the defense that there is no infringement primarily for the reason that the difference in the design of the extrusion holes is a difference at the very point of the novelty of plaintiff’s claimed invention.

The background out of which this action arose can be briefly outlined as follows:

In 1948, plaintiff entered business with his brother and Darwin F. Rosebrook in the manufacture of corn meal collets which when salted and coated with cheese are known by various trade names such as “Cheez Stix,” “Cheezits,” etc. At that time plaintiff and Rosebrook designed a food processing machine for the manufacture of collets. That machine employed a two stage extrusion process using a multiple headplate arrangement, and was the subject of patent number 2,705,927, known as the G & R patent and the Jacks patent. In 1952, a difference arose between plaintiff, his brother, and Rosebrook over the distribution of some royalties, and plaintiff terminated his services with his brother and Rose-brook, took one of the G & R machines, and pursuant to an oral agreement between plaintiff, his brother, and Rose-brook concerning the use of the G & R machine, went into business for himself.

In 1953, plaintiff’s brother and Rose-brook were killed in an airplane crash, and thereafter some doubt arose as to plaintiff’s right to use the machine covered by the G & R patent. In 1955, plaintiff changed his machine from a two stage dual headplate machine to one employing a two stage single headplate arrangement. In the forepart of 1956, plaintiff again changed his machine, this time to one employing a single stage single headplate, and in March 1956', plaintiff applied for a patent on that machine which was granted in July 1958, and which is the patent here in suit. Ma- " chines produced under this patent have been in commercial operation since 1956, and at the present time, plaintiff has some 18 machines placed under leasing agreements.

Prior to 1960, one of the machines covered by the patent in suit here was in operation at Atlanta, Georgia, in the Filler Products Co. plant. Defendant Edwin F. Kelley was a production engineer at the Filler Products plant, and while there observed the machine in operation. Kelley also observed the plaintiff’s machine in operation at the Clover Club Food Co. plant in Kaysville, Utah.

In 1960, Kelley participated in the formation of the defendant Kell-Dot company, and in 1961, under an agreement with defendant Manley, Kell-Dot moved into the premises occupied by Manley. The defendants there built and offered for sale a food processing machine which used a two stage dual headplate extrusion system. Upon the production of that machine the defendants were notified by the holders of the G & R patent that the machine constructed by defendants infringed the G & R patent. Defendants then notified the holders of the G & R patent that they intended to manufacture a machine using a single headplate extrusion system, and the G & R patent holders informed defendants of the existence of plaintiff’s patent. Defendants proceeded with the construction of machines using a single headplate and have continued to make and use single stage single headplate machines since 1961.

Assuming arguendo that plaintiff’s patent is valid, the Court is of the opinion that defendants’ machine does not directly infringe plaintiff’s claims one through four, but that it does infringe those claims by equivalence. Although the configuration of the extrusion holes of defendants’ headplates is different from the shape described in claims one through four, the defendants’ machine produces the same product as that of the plaintiff, and produces it in substantially the same manner. Thus un[145]*145der the test laid down in Machine Co. v. Murphy, 97 U.S. 120, 125, 24 L.Ed. 935 (1877), and followed in Graver Tank & Mfg. Co. v. Linde Air Products Co., 339 U.S. 605, 608, 70 S.Ct. 854, 94 L.Ed. 1097 (1950), that “* * * ‘if two devices do the same work in substantially the same way, and accomplish substantially the same result, they are the same, even though they differ in name, form or shape.’ ”, it is clear that defendants’ machine infringes claims one through four of plaintiff’s patent by equivalence.

Plaintiff also contends that defendants’ machine contributorily infringes plaintiff’s patent because after defendants’ machine has been in operation for a period of time the tapered extrusion holes become worn and their form changes from a hole tapered throughout its length to one tapered at its inlet and cylindrical at its outlet. In view of the finding of infringement by equivalency of claims one through four, it is not necessary to this memorandum to consider the question of contributory infringement.

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229 F. Supp. 143, 141 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 632, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/graves-v-kell-dot-industries-inc-mowd-1964.