ITT Corp. v. United States

17 Cl. Ct. 199, 11 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1657, 1989 U.S. Claims LEXIS 56, 1989 WL 32688
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedApril 6, 1989
DocketNo. 48-84C
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 17 Cl. Ct. 199 (ITT Corp. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
ITT Corp. v. United States, 17 Cl. Ct. 199, 11 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1657, 1989 U.S. Claims LEXIS 56, 1989 WL 32688 (cc 1989).

Opinion

OPINION

NETTESHEIM, Judge.

Before the court, after trial, is the accounting phase of this patent infringement litigation. Post-trial briefing on selected issues has been completed.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff ITT Corporation (“plaintiff” or “ITT”) brought suit pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1498 (1982), claiming reasonable and entire compensation for the unlicensed use of three patents held by plaintiff as assignee. Since 1978 the United States has procured through Hughes Aircraft Company (“Hughes”) the accused fiber optic devices. Plaintiff charged that the devices infringed United States Patent No. 3,936,145 entitled [201]*201“Fiber Optic Alignment Sleeve” (the “ ’145 patent”), which disclosed an alignment sleeve; United States Patent No. 3,947,182 entitled “Fiber Optic Connector with Axial Tolerance Relief” (the “ ’182 patent”), which disclosed a termination pin assembly; and United States Patent No. 4,047,797 entitled “Fiber Optic Connector” (the “ ’797 patent”), which disclosed a strain relief. Trial held during March and April 1986 determined the validity of the patents and the charges of infringement.

The court held the ’182 and ’797 patents to be both valid and infringed; the ’145 patent was held valid, but not infringed. ITT Corp. v. United States, 10 Cl.Ct. 321 (1986).1 Familiarity with this fact-intensive opinion is presumed.

In the liability phase, a principal question was whether the claimed patents disclosed merely existing electrical devices that were converted to fiber optic use or whether plaintiff’s inventions were pioneering. It was found that “marked similarities exist between electrical and fiber optics technolo-gy____” and that there was a “gradual evolution of fiber optics from electrical technology.” ITT Corp., 10 Cl.Ct. at 324. However, plaintiff’s patents were designed to address problems peculiar to fiber optics and not encountered in the existing electrical art. Based on the testimony of plaintiff’s Leslie M. Borsuk, Director of Engineering for ITT-Cannon, and others, the court found six problems that the technology applicable to electrical connectors could not solve and that the technology applicable to fiber optics was applied to correct: 1) lateral misalignment; 2) gap misalignment (no significant gap can be present when two fiber optics are joined); 3) axial tipping or angular misalignment; 4) axial tolerance relief; 5) fragility of fibers; and 6) the manner of fastening optic fibers to a contact. Id. at 328. The court concluded:

In short, the most significant difference between the technologies of fiber optics and electricity is the necessity in fiber optics to construct connectors in a manner which diminishes lateral, gap, and angular misalignment. These mechanical degrees of freedom are not part of the calculus employed in the construction of an electrical connector.

Id. at 329 (footnote omitted).

It was found that the '182 and ’797 patents addressed problems peculiar to fiber optics and that the ’145 patent supplemented the efforts of the ’182 patent. ITT Corp., 10 Cl.Ct. at 329-31. Holding the three patents valid against defendant’s citations to the prior art, the court next looked to the accused devices to determine whether the ’182 and ’145 patents were infringed by the doctrine of equivalents, and whether the ’797 patent was infringed literally or by the doctrine of equivalents.

The accused device covered by one or more claims of the ’182 patent was depicted as PX-25, and those covered by one or more claims of the ’797 patent, as PX-28, 29, 31, and 32. The ’145 patent was alleged to be infringed by the accused devices depicted as PX-26 and 26A. Mr. Borsuk’s testimony about claim 1 of the ’182 patent, coupled with PX-25 and the physical exhibit of an accused device, was held to support a finding of infringement by the doctrine of equivalents, and Mr. Borsuk’s testimony on claim 2 established that the patent was infringed in the same manner. ITT Corp., 10 Cl.Ct. at 380-84. Claims 1 and 13 of the ’145 patent and the Hughes sleeve depicted in PX-26 and 26A both accomplish alignment, but do so in different ways; therefore, the court found that the Hughes devices failed to satisfy the doctrine of equivalents. Id. at 384-87. The court found that the accused devices depicted as PX-28, 29, 31, and 32 infringed the ’797 patent under the doctrine of equivalents. [202]*202However, claims 1, 6, 9, and 12 of the ’797 patent asserted against the accused devices depicted as PX-27, 30, and 33 did not infringe the ’797 patent either literally or by the doctrine of equivalents. Id. at 387-95 & n. 35.

DISCUSSION

I. Compensation Base

In the accounting phase of an action brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1498 (“section 1498”), the objective is to provide the patent holder with reasonable and entire compensation for the Government’s unlicensed use of plaintiff’s patents. A section 1498 action differs from an action brought against a private infringer under 35 U.S.C. § 281 (1982), since the former is treated as an “eminent domain taking of a patent license,” not a tort claim for patent infringement. Leesona Corp. v. United States, 220 Ct.Cl. 234, 247, 599 F.2d 958, 966, cert. denied, 444 U.S. 991, 100 S.Ct. 522, 62 L.Ed.2d 420 (1979). “[Ejquitable principles of fairness are the governing consideration in determining just compensation for an eminent domain taking____” Tektronix, Inc. v. United States, 213 Ct.Cl. 257, 265, 552 F.2d 343, 347 (1977), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1048, 99 S.Ct. 724, 58 L.Ed.2d 707 (1978); see also Calhoun v. United States, 197 Ct.Cl. 41, 51, 453 F.2d 1385, 1391 (1972). Delay compensation has been held to inhere in the concept of reasonable and entire compensation. Decca, Ltd. v. United States, 225 Ct.Cl. 326, 337, 640 F.2d 1156, 1168 (1980), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 819, 102 S.Ct. 99, 70 L.Ed.2d 89 (1981).

One approach to achieve this objective is for a court to determine an applicable compensation base and to apply a reasonable royalty rate to this figure. Leesona, 220 Ct.Cl. at 259, 599 F.2d at 973. The Court of Claims explained in Leesona:

The nature of the property taken by the government in a patent infringement suit has traditionally been a compulsory com-pensable license in the patent, and just compensation has in most cases been defined by a calculation of a “reasonable royalty” for that license, or, when a reasonable royalty cannot be ascertained, another method of estimating the value of the lost patent.

220 Ct.Cl. at 250, 599 F.2d at 968 (citations omitted). In determining the compensation base and fixing a reasonable royalty rate, the court should focus on the date of the taking by the Government in order to capture the actual value of the patent. See Decca, 225 Ct.Cl. at 336, 640 F.2d at 1167.

“The proper measure in eminent domain is what the owner has lost, not what the taker has gained.” Leesona, 220 Ct.Cl. at 253, 599 F.2d at 969 (citation omitted). Judge Colaianni in Dynamics Corp. of America v. United States, 5 Cl.Ct. 591 (1984),

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17 Cl. Ct. 199, 11 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1657, 1989 U.S. Claims LEXIS 56, 1989 WL 32688, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/itt-corp-v-united-states-cc-1989.