Loctite Corp. v. Fel-Pro Inc.

94 F.R.D. 1, 30 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1587, 210 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 280, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16823
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedAugust 15, 1980
DocketCiv. A. No. 77 C 2278
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 94 F.R.D. 1 (Loctite Corp. v. Fel-Pro Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Loctite Corp. v. Fel-Pro Inc., 94 F.R.D. 1, 30 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1587, 210 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 280, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16823 (N.D. Ill. 1980).

Opinion

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

McGARR, District Judge.

Findings of Fact

1. The complaint was filed by Loctite Corporation (“Loctite”), a Connecticut corporation having offices in Newington, Connecticut, on June 24, 1977. It charged FelPro Incorporated (“Fel-Pro”) with infringement of three patents, U. S. Patents 3,041,-322, 3,046,262, and 3,218,305. It was amended on September 30, 1977 to name Felt Products Mfg. Co. (“Felt Products”) as an additional defendant. Fel-Pro and Felt Products are corporations of Illinois and Delaware, respectively, and have offices in Skokie, Illinois, in this district and division.

2. Defendants’ answers to the amended complaint and counter-claims were filed on October 17, 1977. A fourth patent, U. S. Patent 3,043,820, was added by defendants’ amended counterclaim on February 28, 1979. Plaintiff claimed infringement of that patent by its reply dated April 16, 1979.

3. Jurisdiction and venue are conferred upon this court under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1338(a) and 1400(b).

4. The subject matter of the four patents in suit is anaerobic sealants and adhesives. Anaerobic products set up, solidify, and therefore cause sealing or adherence, in the absence of air (U.S.Pat. 3,041,322, Col. 1, lines 35, et seq.). The patents involved in this case are asserted to be improvements in the field of anaerobic sealants and adhesives.

5. Each of the four patents in suit concludes with patent claims, each specifying ingredients and quantities and plaintiff has acknowledged its burden to prove infringement.

6. It is with efforts to secure a specification of the factual basis for plaintiff’s charges of infringement through discovery, that this court and defendants have been largely involved since the case was filed.

7. Prior to the filing of this action, defendants determined to get into the business of selling anaerobic compositions, and contacted Loctite regarding the possible purchase of products from Loctite for resale (Lehman Dep., p. 15). On March 25, 1976, defendants advised Loctite’s president that defendants had developed their own anaerobic products, stating that “Our laboratory people were cautioned that their own efforts had to take into consideration the Fel-Pro policy of not infringing on any existing patents, be they Loctite or any others” (Westervelt Dep. Exh. W-57). On April 23, 1976, samples of, and literature describing, defendants’ anaerobic products were sent to Loctite’s president (Elliott Dep. Exh. E-45).

[3]*38. In 1976, plaintiff ran two sets of tests on defendants’ products. Mr. Kubik found cumene hydroperoxide or some peroxide to be present (Kubik Dep. Exh. K-27; pp. 84-7). Plaintiff’s laboratory supervisor, Dr. Leonard, found tertiary butyl hydroperoxide (“TBHP”) was present (Leonard Dep. Exh. L-3). Plaintiff states that when it filed this action, it relied on Leonard’s tests (Leonard Dep. Exh. L-3; Trans. 9/20/79, p. 18). Leonard admitted he did not quantify the test results (Leonard 88-90) and no quantitative test data supporting infringement have been produced.

9. Plaintiff filed this patent infringement action on June 24, 1977.

10. On August 18, 1977, defendants served a deposition notice for plaintiff’s officer having the greatest knowledge of the infringement facts (Dep. Not. 8/18/77). Plaintiff stated its “intention to produce the officer of Loctite who has the best knowledge of the decision to bring the above-entitled action, together with documents relating to Loctite’s knowledge of defendant’s infringing acts” (Exh. AFM-1). Counsel for defendant asked for a copy of the analytical report supporting the charges to review before the deposition (Exh. AFM-2).

11. Jean Mauro, Loctite’s Assistant Secretary, its in-house patent attorney (Mauro 3-5), and listed as being of counsel on many of the documents filed in this case, was deposed on September 16, 1977. At his deposition, plaintiff repeatedly refused to disclose the test results upon which it based its complaint (Mauro 94-5), asserting they were irrelevant (Mauro 19, 46-47, 57-58). During a recess, plaintiff’s counsel asserted that it had found the chemical tertiary butyl hydroperoxide, TBHP, to be present (Sutker 10/21/77 Aff.).

12. On October 6,1977, Mr. Ames, counsel for plaintiff, stated that further tests had been run and that the Loctite test procedures “tended to overlap with respect to tertiary-butyl hydroperoxide and persulfates,” a non-infringing catalyst (Sutker 10/21/77 Aff.; Leonard 504). On October 6, 1977, plaintiff was uncertain whether the required TBHP catalyst upon which it based this case was present in defendants’ products, and Leonard later admitted that he was dubious about his TBHP tests as of September/October, 1977 (Leonard 500-504), feeling that perhaps a persulfate was what was present, not TBHP. On July 18, 1978, counsel again stated that Leonard felt that a persulfate rather than TBHP was present (McDowell Dep., p. 271-2).

13. On October 25, 1977, defendants filed a motion to compel discovery and an affidavit of defendants’ chief chemist testifying that defendants put in none of the claimed catalysts (McDowell 10/21/77 Aff.).

14. Early in the case defendants had also filed Interrogatories 5-7, seeking a specification of the charges of infringement by product ingredient and quantity. Plaintiff did not identify each ingredient by name or quantify the ingredients in the responses filed on December 29, 1977.

15. On March 20, 1978, this court held that plaintiff’s argument that the test results were “not relevant is without merit,” and that

Defendants have the right to refute plaintiff’s evidence of infringement, and information on these tests [the presuit tests] is relevant for that purpose.

Order, p./2. This court also held that defendants had “a right to be apprised of the specific allegations against” them, that the pre-suit tests were not privileged, and that claims of work product did not justify withholding of the evidence upon which plaintiff based its charges of infringement. Plaintiff to this day has failed to specify its charges by identifying by accused product, the infringing ingredients it contains, and the quantities of those ingredients present.

16. On May 24, 1978, defendants took the deposition of Dr. Leonard and asked such questions as whether he believed the 1976 test results which this court ordered produced on March 20, 1978 were correct and why he had slashed out TBHP on one exhibit (Leonard Exh. L-5). Plaintiff’s counsel directed Leonard not to answer those and like questions (Leonard 69, 94-97, 200).

[4]*417. Those questions were presented on a Rule 37 motion to this court on July 18, 1978. On October 31, 1978, the magistrate ordered Leonard to be presented to answer them. Plaintiff appealed, and on January 2, 1979, this court affirmed the order.

18. On July 18, 1978, after Leonard refused to answer whether his TBHP tests were correct, defendants filed a motion for partial summary judgment of non-infringement as to U.S. Patent 3,041,322 (the TBHP patent). The TBHP patent required the presence of the specific catalyst TBHP. Defendants showed that they never put TBHP into their products (McDowell Affs. dated 10/21/77 & 7/19/78).

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94 F.R.D. 1, 30 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1587, 210 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 280, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16823, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/loctite-corp-v-fel-pro-inc-ilnd-1980.