Kool Vent Metal Awning Corp. of America v. Bottom

95 F. Supp. 798, 89 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 176, 1951 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2687
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedJanuary 31, 1951
DocketNo. 6832(2)
StatusPublished

This text of 95 F. Supp. 798 (Kool Vent Metal Awning Corp. of America v. Bottom) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kool Vent Metal Awning Corp. of America v. Bottom, 95 F. Supp. 798, 89 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 176, 1951 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2687 (E.D. Mo. 1951).

Opinion

HULEN, District Judge.

Plaintiff, by contract with George A. Houseman, acquired the right to use of the trade name “Kool-Vent” and to grant licenses in 35 states for the manufacture and sale, under that name, of patented aluminum awnings. On March 16, 1946, it entered into a license agreement with defendant Bottom. The license agreement was pursuant to plaintiff’s plan of exploiting the awning patent commercially under the name “Kool-Vent”, by granting exclusive territorial licenses for the manufacture and sale of such awnings and use of trade name. The territory covered by the license agreement with Bottom was St. Louis and certain Missouri counties. A second license agreement was entered into on November 3, 1947. The second agreement enlarged the territory covered by the first agreement. Both agreements contemplated Bottom would organize corporations to manufacture and sell the awnings and authority to assign the license agreements was accordingly given. The defendant corporations, controlled by defendant Bottom, were organized in furtherance of this plan.

Plaintiff now seeks a decree of specific performance of part of the license agreements, after defendants had served notice to cancel, defendants claiming they had been substantially evicted under the licenses, by an infringement suit decided against the Houseman patent, and plaintiff’s repudiation of certain major obligations in the license agreements.

The execution of the license agreements with defendants proceeded without incident until November, 1948. A large quantity of awnings were manufactured and sold by defendants under the license agreements.

Certain of the patent rights held by plaintiff and covered by the license agreements rested on an interest acquired by plaintiff in a patent granted to Houseman. A prior patent on the same construction was Matthews Reissue Patent No. 21053, owned by National Ventilated Awning Company. At the time of the first licensing agreement between plaintiff and defendant litigation was pending against another licensee under the Houseman patent, on a claim that the Houseman patent infringed the Matthews patent. In that case the Houseman patent was sustained in the trial court, but was held to infringe on appeal. Thereafter, plaintiff in this case sought a declaratory judgment in the Federal Court at Cleveland, Ohio, on the issue of infringement of the Matthews patent, and suffered an adverse ruling in September 1948, from which no appeal was taken. Plaintiff then started negotiations with the holders of the Matthews patent to acquire the right to use and license users, such as defendants, in the manufacture of the structure covered by the Matthews patent. Plaintiff consummated such an agreement with the holders of the Matthews patent on May 1, 1949. Meantime the owner of the Matthews patent had filed suit in this Court against the defendants in this case, charging defendants with infringing the Matthews patent by virtue of structures manufactured under the license agreements between plaintiff and defendants in this case. [800]*800A temporary injunction is now in force against defendants in that case.

The license agreements between plaintiff and defendants provide that if defendants are sued for infringement, plaintiff will undertake the defense of any such suit on request. When the holders of the Matthews patent instituted proceedings against the defendants in this Court, on request, plaintiff undertook the defense of that case and continued to conduct the defense until May 1, 1949. By the settlement agreement with holders of the Matthews patent plaintiff 'bound itself not to further defend any such suits on behalf of its licensees.

By the two license agreements sued on plaintiff bound itself to give defendants the rights of manufacture and sale on any further awning patents it might acquire the use of. By the settlement contract with the holders of the Matthews patent plaintiff agreed to conditions that made it impossible to carry out that provision of its license agreements with defendants.

Plaintiff executed the Matthews settlement agreement without approval of defendants. In conformity with the Matthews settlement agreement, but in violation of the license agreements between plaintiff and defendants, plaintiff, soon after it executed the Matthews agreement, caused its counsel to withdraw from defense of the infringement suit pending against defendants in this Court.

In September, 1949, defendants served notice on plaintiff of cancellation of the license. agreements entered into between plaintiff and defendant Bottom.

Defendants’ notice of cancellation includes these recitals as reason for cancellation :

“After the Cleveland trial you advised us by letter that we should cease making ventilated roof awnings to avoid further liability by reason of the Matthews patent. * * *
“We made the necessary changes in our tooling and manufacturing operation, to avoid the Matthews liability, * * *. Such has definitely not proved to be the case, and on March 18, 1949 the Court enjoined us from manufacturing the awning construction for which we contracted with you.
“To make matters even worse, not only have you renounced your obligations to> us, but in flagrant violation of your duties to us have joined forces with National against us. Your agreement with -National is a conspiracy in violation of the Anti-Trust Laws, and a direct violation of the agreement of March 16, 1946 between your company and ours.”

Defendant Mid-West paid royalties to plaintiff until November 1, 1948, and defendant Aluma until January 31, 1949. It is defendants’ position that the awnings made by them subsequent to November, 1948, are of a type not covered by the license agreements with plaintiff. Payment of royalties after that date was represented by defendants as done because they thought the right to proceed under the contracts with plaintiff had been halted only for a short period, in contemplation of settlement of the Matthews patent claims. Defendants assert they own the trade name “Kool-Vent”, for use in the St. Louis territory.

Defendants by counterclaim seek to recover expenses incurred in defense of the Matthews patent suit; damages for breach of contract resulting from plaintiff executing the Matthews agreement; and also damages based on an alleged violation of the anti-trust laws by plaintiff.

I.

This controversy starts with the loss by plaintiff of its declaratory judgment suit in Cleveland in September of 1948 to the holders of the Matthews patent. Plaintiff was then, that is on loss of the Matthews case, under no legal obligation to defendants to secure a licensing right agreement with holders of the Matthews patent. That was one of the hazards to’ defendants of the character of license agreement executed by the parties. Chicago & A. Ry. Co. v. Pressed Steel Car Co., 7 Cir., 243 F. 883.

The essence of the dispute on the structure involved is an aluminum awning, the top of which has alternating pans so' spaced as to permit air to circulate between the [801]*801pans. The air circulation is the result of raising the top pans slightly. It was the air circulating feature that was held in infringe the Matthews patent. By “jamming” the pans, that is lowering the top pan so as to stop the flow of air, infringement was avoided.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Schreiber v. Butte Copper & Zinc Co.
98 F. Supp. 106 (S.D. New York, 1951)
Penley Bros. v. Hall
84 F.2d 371 (First Circuit, 1936)
Ross v. Fuller & Warren Co.
105 F. 510 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern New York, 1900)
Wilfley v. New Standard Concentrator Co.
164 F. 421 (Ninth Circuit, 1908)
Weegham v. Killefer
215 F. 168 (W.D. Michigan, 1914)
Oscar Barnett Foundry Co. v. Crowe
219 F. 450 (Third Circuit, 1915)
Chicago & A. Ry. Co. v. Pressed Steel Car Co.
243 F. 883 (Seventh Circuit, 1917)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
95 F. Supp. 798, 89 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 176, 1951 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2687, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kool-vent-metal-awning-corp-of-america-v-bottom-moed-1951.