Pemco Products, Inc. v. General Mills, Inc.

155 F. Supp. 433, 115 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 72, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2956
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedSeptember 27, 1957
DocketCiv. No. 7357
StatusPublished

This text of 155 F. Supp. 433 (Pemco Products, Inc. v. General Mills, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pemco Products, Inc. v. General Mills, Inc., 155 F. Supp. 433, 115 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 72, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2956 (N.D. Ohio 1957).

Opinion

KLOEB, District Judge.

This is an action for the infringement of United States Letters -Patent No. 2,-696,455.

Application for the patent was filed by Harry E. Blair, Assignor to Perneo Products, Inc., on May 19, 1952, and the patent was granted on December 7, 1954.

The specification recites in part the following:

“The present invention relates to the control of large roundworm infections of poultry and domestic animals. More particularly, it relates to veterinary therapeutic agents for the control of large roundworm infections of poultry and domestic animals comprising an orally ingestible, non-toxic substance having dispersed therein, as an active ingredient, a cadmium compound. * * *
* * -X- * * *
“The effectiveness of my compositions is believed to be due to the cadmium portion of the various compounds, * * *.
******
“Since the anthelmintic activity of my compositions is essentially due to the cadmium portion of the various compounds employed, my invention has a considerable amount of flexibility and permits the use of a wide variety of cadmium compounds. I prefer to employ those cadmium compounds that are readily available and less expensive m as much as economy is one of the important factors affecting the usefulness of my compositions.
“Thus, in the preparation of my medicated feed compositions, I prefer to use the cadmium compounds such as cadmium oxide, cadmium chloride, cadmium bromide or cadmium sulfate because of their cheapness and their availability. It is desired to emphasize, however, that I can employ any cadmium compound which can be used to provide an effective concentration of cadmium without producing a toxic effect. Among such cadmium compounds are cadmium pentachlorophenate, cadmium naphthenate, cadmium or-tho-phenylphenate, cadmium carbonate, cadmium hydroxide, cadmium orthophosphate, cadmium silicate, cadmium chloro-ortho-phenylphenate, cadmium 2, 4-dichloro-ortho-phenylphenate, cadmium acetate, cadmium ammonium fluoride, cadmium arsenate, cadmium borate, cadmium chlorophosphate, cadmium fluoride, cadmium fluosilicate, cadmium metaphosphate, cadmium nitrate, cadmium oxalate, cadmium perchloriate, cadmium phosphate, cadmium sulfide, cadmium sodium chloride, cadmium stannate, cadmium iodide, cadmium stearate, cadmium salicylate, and the like. if if # ^

Set forth in the specifications are twenty-one examples of methods for preparing the therapeutic agents. Examples 2, 6, 7 and 8 recommend a mixture of cadmium chloride with the feed. All of the other examples recommend a mixture of cadmium oxide with the feed. At the conclusion of the examples, we find the f ollowing:

“In the foregoing examples, the particular cadmium compounds employed may be replaced by an equivalent quantity of any one or combination of the cadmium compounds mentioned previously as being suita[435]*435ble for use in my veterinary therapeutic feed compositions.
******
“The cadmium concentrations in my swine feed mixtures have been varied from 0.003'% to about 0.1%. * * *»

There are ten claims in the patent. By agreement of counsel, plaintiff relies upon claims 2, 7 and 9.

Claim 2 reads as follows:

“A composition for controlling large roundworm infections in swine comprising a grain-based swine feed containing a cadmium compound in a quantity to provide a cadmium concentration of from about 0.003% to about 0.04%.”

Claim 7 reads as follows:

“A process for killing large roundworms in domestic meat-producing animals infected therewith which comprises contacting the roundworms with a cadmium compound by feeding said animals over a period of at least 24 hours, but not over a period sufficient to produce serious toxic effects to the animals, a domestic animal feed containing a cadmium compound in a quantity to provide a cadmium concentration of at least 0.003% based on the weight of the feed.”

Claim 9 reads as follows:

“A process for killing large roundworms in swine infected therewith which comprises contacting the roundworms with a cadmium compound by feeding said swine over a period of at least 24 hours, but not over a period sufficient to produce serious toxic effects to the swine, a swine feed containing a cadmium compound in a quantity to provide a cadmium concentration of about 0.015%.”

Claims 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10 are either composition claims or process claims involving the use of cadmium oxide in some of the claims and cadmium chloride in others of the claims. It will be noted that the claims relied upon are not specific as to the use of either cadmium oxide or cadmium chloride but advocate the use of a “cadmium compound”.

In the answer, among other things, defendant sets up the defense of:

1. Non-infringement, and

2. Invalidity.

Invalidity is alleged because of:

1. Anticipation;

2. Misconduct and misrepresentation in the prosecution of the application;

3. Misuse of the patent; and

4. That the claims to the exclusive use of a large group of related chemicals, without supporting proof that all have a common quality rendering each useful in the proportions patented, are too broad, and are, therefore, invalid.

Section 282, Title 35 U.S.C.A., provides in part as follows:

“A patent shall be presumed valid. The burden of establishing invalidity of a patent shall rest on a party asserting it.”

The defendant has the burden of proof where the defense of invalidity of the patent is asserted, and it has been said that the presumption of validity can be overcome only by clear and satisfactory proof, or proof of such character as to leave no room for doubt. (Walker, Volume 2, page 1273.) The controversy here centers about the claim of infringement asserted by the plaintiff and the claim of invalidity asserted by the defendant. Since an invalid patent cannot be infringed, we shall first consider the issue of the invalidity of the patent and the several claims thereof in suit.

At the inception, it might be well for us to become acquainted with Webster’s definition of the words “cadmium” and “anthelmintic”, because we deal with these words throughout. Webster gives us the following:

“cadmium (kadmium) — A tin-white, malleable, ductile metal, capable of a high polish, and emitting a crackling sound when bent. Melting point about 320° C., 608° F. Boiling point about 778° C., 1432° F. [436]*436Smybol, Cd. Atomic weight, 112.4. Cadmium occurs in the rather rare mineral greenockite (CdS) and also in small amounts in ores of zinc, from which metal it is separated by fractional distillation. It was discovered by Stromeyer in 1817. It is used in making fusible alloys and an amalgam for filling teeth, and in electx*oplating. Chemically, cadmium is bivalent, forming but one oxide, CdO (of characteristic brown color), a basic hydroxide. It is soluble in dilute acids, and when heated in air it burns, yielding the oxide. All its soluble compounds are poisonous.”

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Bluebook (online)
155 F. Supp. 433, 115 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 72, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2956, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pemco-products-inc-v-general-mills-inc-ohnd-1957.