In-Sink-Erator Manufacturing Company, a Wisconsin Corporation v. Waste King Corporation, a California Corporation

346 F.2d 248, 145 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 441, 1965 U.S. App. LEXIS 5589
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedMay 13, 1965
Docket14783_1
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 346 F.2d 248 (In-Sink-Erator Manufacturing Company, a Wisconsin Corporation v. Waste King Corporation, a California Corporation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In-Sink-Erator Manufacturing Company, a Wisconsin Corporation v. Waste King Corporation, a California Corporation, 346 F.2d 248, 145 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 441, 1965 U.S. App. LEXIS 5589 (7th Cir. 1965).

Opinions

CASTLE, Circuit Judge.

In-Sink-Erator Manufacturing Company, a Wisconsin corporation, plaintiffappellee, brought suit in the District Court against Waste King Corporation, a California corporation, defendant-appellant, seeking a declaratory judgment, with incidental equitable relief, adjudicating plaintiff’s non-liability for charged infringement of Jordan Patent No. 2,-879,949.1 Count I of the complaint alleges the invalidity of the patent and the absence of infringement by the plaintiff. Count II avers the plaintiff is protected from the claims of infringement asserted by the defendant by reason of the release provisions of an agreement settling earlier litigation between the parties. These allegations of release and estoppel were put in issue by the defendant. The defendant also filed a counterclaim charging plaintiff with infringement of Claim 7 of the '949 patent.

Upon plaintiff’s motion, made pursuant to Rule 42(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (28 U.S.C.A.), a separate trial was had of the issues presented by Count II. In a memorandum of decision,2 embodying its findings of fact and conclusions of law, the District Court found and concluded that the release provisions constitute a bar to the assertion of defendant’s claim of infringement. Accordingly, a final judgment order was entered against the defendant.

The plaintiff and defendant are competing manufacturers of electric garbage disposers designed for installation in household kitchen sinks. The record reveals that the current controversy began in August 1962, when counsel for the defendant, Waste King, wrote a letter to the plaintiff charging it with infringement of the ’949 patent, and more particularly, of the disclosures of Claim 7 of that patent, relating to a mounting assembly utilizing a grooved thin wall steel sleeve or strainer flange and snap ring construction for installing a garbage disposer unit in a kitchen sink. The defendant, Waste King, it appears, is the exclusive licensee with power to sue for infringement of this patent, originally issued to Hans Jordan on May 31, 1959. An earlier patent issued to Jordan and licensed to Waste King, Jordan Patent No. 2,670,143,3 was the basis of two earlier suits between these same parties. The first, described as the Wisconsin suit, was filed by the defendant, Waste King, against In-Sink-Erator in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin on November 28, 1958, Civil Action No. 58-C-338, and charged a breach of contract consisting of a failure to pay royalties under an alleged license agreement between the parties under the T43 patent. The second action, also filed by Waste King against In-Sink-Erator, charged infringement of the ’143 patent, upon the theory that the license agreement was terminated. This second suit was filed on May 30, 1959, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, Civil Action No. 291-59-K, and is described as the California suit. In it In-Sink-Erator counterclaimed for injunctive relief and an accounting for damages for unfair [250]*250competition. In both the Wisconsin and the California suits In-Sink-Erator’s alleged use of a rubber splash guard in the disposer opening, a feature allegedly protected by the ’143 patent, was the principal issue.

The Wisconsin and California suits were disposed of without adjudication when on March 29, 1962, the parties entered into an agreement of compromise and settlement. The agreement recites the pendency of the Wisconsin and California cases, Waste King’s desire to obtain a license under a designated patent •owned by In-Sink-Erator, and in other pertinent parts is as follows:

“Whereas, Waste King is the exclusive licensee with the right to grant sublicenses under United States Letters Patent No. 2,670,143, issued on February 23, 1954, which, together with all reissues and extensions thereof, are hereinafter referred to collectively as the ‘Jordan Patent’; and
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“Whereas, it is the desire of the parties hereto to settle and terminate the Wisconsin Case and the California Case; and
“Whereas, it is the desire of In-Sink-Erator to obtain a paid-up, nonexclusive, non-caneellable license under said Jordan Patent and a release of all possible liability arising out of the facts pleaded and involved in the Wisconsin Case and the California Case; and
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“Now, therefore, in consideration of the premises and the mutual covenants set forth hereinafter, the parties have agreed as follows:
“1. In-Sink-Erator shall, prior to April 1, 1962, pay to Waste King the sum of Seventy-Five Thousand Dollars ($75,000.00), in full payment of any and all profits, and/or damages, and/or royalties and/or costs, and/or other liability of any kind whatsoever which, may accrue, or which may have accrued, or which may have become due and payable to Waste King, or its predecessor or predecessors in interest, up to and including the date hereof, from In-Sink-Erator arising from any alleged breach of contract, or arising from any alleged infringement of any of the claims of said Jordan Patent, or arising from any of the facts pleaded in the Wisconsin Case, or the California Case.
“2. Each of ’ the parties hereto hereby agree that their respective counsel, forthwith after the payment referred to in Paragraph 1 hereof, shall execute and file stipulations of dismissal in the Wisconsin Case and California Case, respectively, in the forms attached hereto as ‘Exhibit A’ and ‘Exhibit B’.
“3. Effective upon the filing of the dismissals referred to in Paragraph 2 hereof, each of the parties hereto, for itself, its legal representatives, successors, and assigns, does hereby remise, release, and forever discharge the other party hereto, its legal representatives, successors, assigns, distributors, dealers, and customers, of all, and from all, and all manner of action and actions, cause and causes of action, claims and demands, whatsoever, in law or in equity, that it ever had, now has, or hereafter may have, arising from any alleged infringement of any of the claims of the Jordan Patent or arising from any of the facts pleaded in the Wisconsin Case or the California Case.
“4. Waste King for itself, and joined by, for, and with the consent and approval of, Given Machinery Company, a signatory hereto, hereby grants to In-Sink-Erator, effective upon the filing of the dismissals referred to in Paragraph 2 hereof, and continuing until the expiration of the last expiring patent coming under the provisions of this Paragraph 4 hereof, a paid-up, non-cancellable, non-exclusive, right and [251]*251license throughout the world to make, use, and sell under said Jordan Patent and under all claims of all other United States and foreign Letters Patent, now or hereafter owned by Waste King and/or said Given Machinery Company or as to which either Waste King or said Given Machinery Company now has or acquires the right to grant licenses or sublicenses, which claims define substantially the same subject matter as any claim or claims of said Jordan Patent (but excluding any claims of any such other Letters Patent, which include anything not disclosed in said Jordan Patent).”
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346 F.2d 248, 145 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 441, 1965 U.S. App. LEXIS 5589, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-sink-erator-manufacturing-company-a-wisconsin-corporation-v-waste-king-ca7-1965.