I. D. Russell Co. v. Dr. Salsbury's Laboratories

198 F.2d 473
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedAugust 28, 1952
Docket14535_1
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 198 F.2d 473 (I. D. Russell Co. v. Dr. Salsbury's Laboratories) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
I. D. Russell Co. v. Dr. Salsbury's Laboratories, 198 F.2d 473 (8th Cir. 1952).

Opinions

THOMAS, Circuit Judge.

This suit was brought by the appellee, Dr. Salsbury’s Laboratories, an Iowa corporation, against the I. D. Russell Co., a partnership, of Kansas City, Missouri, for infringement of patent No. 2,450,866, issued October 5, 1948, to Neal F. Morehouse and Orley J. Mayfield and by them assigned to the plaintiff. The plaintiff demanded an injunction, an accounting for profits, damages, costs and attorney fees. The defendants pleaded misuse and invalidity of the patent and filed a counterclaim for damages.

The case was tried to the court without a jury. The court made findings of fact and conclusions of law and entered judgment for the plaintiff and against the defendants, dismissing the counterclaim. The court held that the patent is valid, that it was not misused by the plaintiff, granted an injunction as prayed, awarded damages in the amount of $12,000, for an attorney’s fee in the amount of $3,460, for costs, and for an accounting for profits. The defendants appeal.

The patent involved is for a “Poultry Treatment Composition.” The court found [474]*474that claims 1 to 4 and 12 to 16 were infringed. Claims 1 to 4 are for a medicinal preparation for the treatment of chickens to stimulate growth. Claims 12 to 16 cover a medicinal preparation to control coccidi-osis in chickens.

Claim 4, which is typical of the first group, reads: “A composition for the treatment of poultry comprising an aqueous solution containing 3-nitro-4-hydroxy phe-nyl arsenic acid in the approximate concentration range of 0.00005% to 0.035%.

Claim 16 is typical of the second group. It reads: “A composition for the control of coccidiosis in poultry comprising an aqueous solution containing 3-nitro-4-hy-droxy phenyl arsenic acid in the approximate range of 0.0079% to 0.035%.

In their briefs the parties refer to the chemical used as 3-nitro. Eliminating technical terms, claim 4 means a solution of 3-nitro in water within the concentration range stated, and claim 16 means a solution of 3-nitro in water within the range stated in the claim. The patent is for a composition of two unpatented substances, water and 3-nitro.

Neither of the parties manufacture and sell the patented composition; “ * * * that is to say, they do not practice the invention.” Mercoid Corporation v. Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Co., 320 U.S. 680, 683, 64 S.Ct. 278, 280, 88 L.Ed. 396. John G. Salsbury, vice-president and general manager of the plaintiff, testified: “Our company sells a product called Reno-sal * * * a Renosal powder and a Reno-sal tablet * * * and another product called Nitrosal. We haven’t granted any license under the patent in suit * * * I believe there is an implied license with each package of Renosal that we sell to use or make a product containing water and 3-nitro * * Printed on each package is the number of the patent with directions for mixing the Renosal or 3-nitro with water or food.

Dr. Neal F. Morehouse, one of the pat-entees and an employee of the plaintiff, testified: “When we found this 3-nitro was effective we did not mix it up with water in the proper dosage and sell it in that form because it would have been uneconomical. Our smallest package of Renosal * * * is a 25 tablet package, weighing approximately one ounce. If you marketed that in a diluted form, ready for the consumption of poultry, it would require approximately the shipping of 103 pounds of material, compared to one ounce of material, and that would be mostly water.”

The defendants manufacture and sell 3-nitro under the trade names of Korum and Zuco with instructions how to mix them with water for consumption by chickens. The court found that the differences between defendants’ Korum and Zuco and plaintiff’s Renosal are inconsequential and that they infringe the patent.

In their brief the defendants say that while they believe the patent involved is clearly invalid, they are not primarily concerned with that issue. Their principal contention, and upon which they primarily rely, is that plaintiff misuses its patent in that by its method of doing business and by this suit it is endeavoring to maintain a monopoly on the sale of the unpatented 3-nitro. This alleged misuse of the patent is shown by the fact set out above, namely, that the plaintiff does not grant a license to any one to use the patent except the implied license granted to the purchasers of its Renosal products.

Plaintiff’s contention on this point is that it does not sell the unpatented 3-nitro in bulk with any restrictive conditions. Counsel for the plaintiff says: “All that plaintiff does is produce a preparation especially adapted for formulating a .drinking water medication for poultry, and in so doing, he identifies his product unequivocally and restrictively through the label directions placed upon the containers. Presented in this specific form, plaintiff’s composition no longer has the character of common raw material or commodity of commerce, but qualifies as a distinct commercial entity within the limits of the patent grant. And, indeed, this is the only feasible method of exploiting the patent, * * * since it is prohibitively uneconomical to ship tons of water all over the nation in order to dispose of a few grains of 3-nitro. It is therefore unsound to contend that plaintiff [475]*475sells an unpatented article with an implied license to use.”

The law, we think, is clear on this contention. If the defendants’ contention is sound we need not determine whether the composition is patentable. Carbice Corporation of America v. American Patents Development Corporation, 283 U.S. 27, 51 S.Ct. 334, 335, 75 L.Ed. 819. In the cited case the Court says also that if a patent is valid the patentee may charge a royalty or license fee for its use — “But it [the patentee] may not exact as the condition of a license that unpatented materials used in connection with the invention shall be purchased only from the licensor; and if it does so, relief against one who supplies such unpatented materials will be denied. The limited monopoly to make, use, and vend an article may not be ‘expanded by limitations :as to materials and supplies necessary to the 'operation of it.’ ” Citing Motion Pictures Patents Co. v. Universal Film Mfg. Co., 243 U.S. 502, 515, 37 S.Ct. 416, 61 L.Ed. 871. The Court said further in the same opinion: “If a monopoly could be so expanded, * * * The owner of a patent for a process might secure a partial monopoly on the unpatented material employed in it. * * *»

The Supreme Court thereafter referring to the Carbice case, supra, said in Leitch Manufacturing Co. v. Barber Co., 302 U.S. 458, 463, 58 S.Ct. 288, 290, 82 L.Ed. 371; “By the rule there declared every use of a patent as a means of obtaining a limited monopoly of unpatented material is prohibited.”

The argument of the plaintiff that it would be inconvenient and uneconomical to sell and ship the patented composition is without merit. In Mercoid Corporation v. Mid-Continent Inv. Co., 320 U.S. 661, 665, 64 S.Ct. 268, 271, 88 L.Ed.

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198 F.2d 473, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/i-d-russell-co-v-dr-salsburys-laboratories-ca8-1952.