United States v. Tide Water Oil Co.

19 C.C.P.A. 392, 1932 CCPA LEXIS 23
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedMarch 7, 1932
DocketNo. 3476
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 19 C.C.P.A. 392 (United States v. Tide Water Oil Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Tide Water Oil Co., 19 C.C.P.A. 392, 1932 CCPA LEXIS 23 (ccpa 1932).

Opinion

Lenroot, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from a judgment of the United States Customs Court in reappraisements 97807-A and 97810-A to 97815-A, inclusive.

The merchandise involved is an oil-refining plant purchased by appellee in Germany and imported into the United States in seven [394]*394shipments, for which seven entries were made, six of them under the Tariff Act of 1922 and one under the Tariff Act of 1930.

The single judge sitting in reappraisement sustained the entered value of the merchandise, and upon appeal by the Government the Customs Court, First Division, made the following findings:

1.- That the machines in question were manufactured in Germany for the plaintiff company.
2. That there was not any foreign value for said machines.
3. That there was an export value for said machines.
4. That such export value was the invoice price thereof', viz, $192,700, and we find the value of the merchandise on the date of shipment to be that sum, plus packing.
The judgment of the lower court is affirmed.

In its judgment, from which this appeal is taken, it ordered and adjudged—

that the merchandise described in the invoices is dutiable according to the export value thereof, being the invoice price, viz, $192,700, to which is added packing.

The aggregate of the entered values in said seven entries is $192,700.

The appraiser accepted such entered values, plus the sum of $100,000, allocating the latter to the said seven entries by increasing the entered values of the merchandise embraced therein approximately fifty per centum, thus arriving at an appraised value of the entire plant of $292,700.

It appears that appellee purchased the merchandise here involved under a contract with a German firm, of which Dr. Larzar Edeleanu was the managing director. Said contract was introduced in evidence by appellee. This contract, a report of a special agent of the Government, and the testimony of said Edeleanu comprise the entire evidence in the case admitted upon the trial.

From the evidence it appears that the oil-refining plant in question was constructed and designed for the purpose of refining distillates of petroleum by a chemical process patented by said Dr. Edeleanu. Said contract involved the purchase by appellee of the said plant and a license to appellee to use said process in the United States, which process was covered by United States patents and applications for patents.

The provisions of said contract giving rise to the principal controverted question before us are as follows:

1. Licensor grants to licensee a license to use in the United States of America said improvements and inventions covered by said United States letters patent and applications for patents, and all other developments of said process, and improvements and inventions for carrying out the same, so far as owned by licensor up to the date of conclusion of this agreement; * * *.
2. The licensor agrees promptly to communicate to the licensee all improvements and inventions which licensor may discover or acquire hereafter during the term of this contract either in the said process and/or in the plant hereinafter [395]*395agreed to be furnished by licensor, and in any other plant that may be furnished by licensor to licensee, and the licensee shall be entitled to use such improvements and inventions subject to the terms and conditions hereof and without any additional payment or royalty other than as provided in paragraph 5 hereof, and the licensee likewise agrees promptly to communicate and give licensor and its licensees under similar agreements the right to use any improvements and inventions which licensee may discover or acquire in the future during the term of this contract, either in said process or in said plant and without any payment or royalty. Said improvements and inventions shall be communicated by one party to the other irrespective of whether or not the same may consist of a patentable invention. (Italics ours.)
* sfc * * * ‡ *
5. For the use of said services, information, experience, process improvements, and inventions, or any of them, the licensee will, during the term of this contract, make the following payments in respect of all products treated by the licensee under this agreement:
250 per ton on gasoline distillate charged into the plant, but in case the sulphur-dioxide extract is used for blending to produce motor fuel the rate shall be 500 per ton on the gasoline distillate so charged.
500 per ton on kerosene and gas oil distillate so charged.
660 per ton on lubricating-oil distillate so charged.
770 per ton on cosmetic and medicinal-oil distillate so charged.
6. The licensee guarantees and agrees to pay to the licensor a minimum sum of $20,000 in U. S. gold per annum for a period of five years from the date of the completion and placing in commercial operation of the plant to be furnished and erected as hereinafter provided; said guarantee and the calculations for said payments hereinbefore set forth shall be based upon the calendar year, commencing January 1st, and necessary adjustment shall be made for the fraction of the first year remaining after the erection of said plant. Accountings shall be made by the licensee to the licensor on the 30th day of June and the 31st day of December of each year of the quantity and character of distillates so charged during the preceding six months’ period, and payments accrued hereunder shall be mailed thirty days thereafter to the order of the licensor. Any deficiency in the minimum payments provided as aforesaid for the six months’ period shall be made up at the time that the semiannual payment is due, and such deficiency payments shall be applied in payment of subsequent amounts due in excess of said minimum royalty guarantees.
8. The licensor hereby offers and agrees to sell and the licensee agrees to purchase a commercial plant for the daily treatment capacity of—
2,550 bbls.=360 tons of lubricating-oil distillate using 100% by vol. of liquid sulphur dioxide, or
1,750 bbls. = 250 tons of lubricating-oil distillate using 150% of liquid sulphur dioxide, or
1,250 bbls. = 180 tons of lubricating-oil distillate using 200% of liquid sulphur dioxide,
by said process, in accordance with and for the price set forth in the estimate and upon the guarantees with respect to working capacity of the plant, its corn-sumption of power, water, sulphur dioxide, and steam, and subject to the terms of delivery and payment, all of which with data necessary for the calculation of the operation cost have been submitted to the licensee and contained in the “quotation” attached hereto, marked “Exhibit B” and made part of this contract.

[396]*396Other pertinent provisions of tbe contract set forth detailed prices for various parts comprising the plant and that the prices quoted are for delivery f. o. b.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
19 C.C.P.A. 392, 1932 CCPA LEXIS 23, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-tide-water-oil-co-ccpa-1932.