Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/304/159/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 17:53:50+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 304 › Crown Cork & Seal Co. v. Ferdinand Gutmann Co.
1. Review on certiorari is confined to the questions presented by the petition for the writ. P. 304 U. S. 161.
2. Abandonment, as a defense in a suit for patent infringement, must be pleaded or noticed, under R.S. § 4920. P. 304 U. S. 165.
An applicant for patent does not abandon an invention by withdrawing the disclosure of it, and a corresponding claim, from an earlier application when the same disclosure is kept continuously before the Patent Office through his successive divisional applications.
The continuity so maintained shows an intention to retain, not to abandon, the invention.
3. W applied for and obtained patent for a method of applying "center spots" to the cork cushions of crown caps used to seal bottles containing beverages under pressure, the center spots serving to prevent contact of the liquid with the cork. The patented method required simultaneous application of pressure and heat to the center spot to make it stick to the cork cushion in the cap at the time of assembly. A disclosure of the means of applying the heat by preheating the crown caps was eliminated from the application before the patent issued, but was preserved in divisional applications. Before the patent issued, J filed application claiming this means of preheating, and later obtained patent. A year thereafter, but more than two years after the date of his own patent, W copied J's claims in a divisional application, upon which, after interference proceedings, he was awarded a patent. Held: that, in the absence of intervening right, the delay of more than two years needed no special excuse and did not invalidate the divisional patent. Webster Co. v. Splitedorf Co., 264 U. S. 463, distinguished. P. 304 U. S. 165.
to enlarge the patent monopoly beyond that contemplated by the patent law. R.S. § 4886. P. 304 U. S. 167.
Certiorari, 302 U.S. 664, to review the reversal of a decree, 14 F.Supp. 255, sustaining two patents and enjoining infringement.
Petitioner sued respondent in the District Court for Eastern New York to enjoin infringements of patents, two of which are here involved. One is Warth reissue patent, No. 19,117, dated March 20, 1934. The other is Warth patent, No. 1,967,195, dated July 17, 1934, a divisional patent. Both relate to methods for applying small disks of paper or foil, known as center spots, to cork cushions of crown caps. These caps are used to seal bottles containing pressure beverages. The center spot prevents contact of the liquid with the cork. The District Court adjudged both patents valid and infringed. 14 F.Supp. 255. The Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, holding the reissue patent not infringed and the divisional one invalid because of laches in filing the application on which it was granted. 86 F.2d 698.
a divisional application regularly filed and prosecuted in accordance with patent office rules?"
"2. Where there has been more than two years' delay in asserting specific claims in a divisional application, is it an excuse for the delay that there were claims in the parent patent which, on their face, covered and were reasonably believed to cover, the subject matter of the divisional claims, even if a Court later interpreted the parent patent claims not to cover such subject matter?"
Our consideration of the case will be limited to these questions. Washington Virginia & Maryland Coach Co. v. Labor Board, 301 U. S. 142, 301 U. S. 146; Morehead v. N.Y. ex rel. Tipaldo, 298 U. S. 587, 298 U. S. 604-605; Clark v. Williard, 294 U. S. 211, 294 U. S. 216; Alice State Bank v. Houston Pasture Co., 247 U. S. 240, 247 U. S. 242. The first calls for decision upon a single point. It specifically assumes the absence of intervening rights, and that the application was appropriately made. There is no question as to the validity of either the original or reissue patents.
divisional application entitled to the filing date of his first one, and awarded the claims of the Johnson patent to him as prior inventor. These are the claims held too late by the Circuit Court of Appeals.
to the center spots when subjected to pressure. The important feature is "heating the pads [cork cushions] in the caps" before placing the spots upon them.
"It may be desirable to secure the metal foil spot in position, prior to the heat and pressure steps, sufficiently to prevent dislodgement of the spot during any interval between assembling and final sticking. This may be accomplished, for example, by preheating the assembled crown to soften the coating as soon as the metal foil spot is deposited."
the coating and renders it adhesive. . . ."
So far as concerns the question under consideration, it is broad enough to include means for supplying heat by the punch as shown by the drawings, and the preheating method claimed in the divisional application.
"No such excuse appears here. Had Warth chosen to retain in his parent application broad generic claims which might cover the preheating method, then indeed the Splitedorf rule might not be applicable. . . . But . . . , for a period of more than two years, Warth apparently did not wish to claim the preheating method, having deliberately cancelled the preheating specification from his original application and shaped his claims so as to exclude it and his patent having been granted January 6, 1931. He made no claim for preheating until more than two years thereafter -- namely, April 4, 1933. In the meantime, a patent containing claims for the preheating method had been granted to Johnson on April 5, 1932, and it was Warth's discovery of this fact which stirred him to action. As in the Splitedorf case, had it not been for this competitor, Warth might never have considered the subject worth claiming as an invention."
The court meant that Warth had really abandoned his invention.
See Western Electric Co. v. General Talking Pictures Corp., 91 F.2d 922, 927.
But, as abandonment was not pleaded as a defense, Rev.St. § 4920, as amended, and as Warth's disclosure was continuously before the Patent Office, clearly without any significance adverse to the petitioner is the fact that Warth formally cancelled one disclosure from his first application and with it claims thought by the Circuit Court of Appeals broad enough to cover the disclosure. The continuity so maintained shows that Warth intended to retain, not to abandon, the disclosed invention. See Godfrey v. Eames, 1 Wall. 317, 68 U. S. 325, 68 U. S. 326; Clark Blade & Razor Co. v. Gillette Safety Razor Co., 194 F. 421, 422.
This case is not like Webster Electric Co. v. Splitedorf Co., supra. In that case, there came here the question of the validity of claims of a patent issued to Kane in 1918. In 1910, Kane had filed his first application, on which patent issued in 1916. In 1913, a patent covering the same subject matter issued to the Podlesaks, to whom a reissue patent was granted in 1915. Later in 1915, Kane filed a divisional application which copied the claims of the Podlesak patent. They were decided in favor of the Podlesaks. Thereafter, June 17, 1918, Kane amended his divisional application by adding claims which were allowed, and September 24, 1918, patent issued to Webster Electric Company, Kane's assignee. In 1915, it had brought the suit against the Splitedorf Company. October 25, 1918, it filed a supplemental bill bringing in claims of the patent issued September 24, 1918.
"were for the first time presented to the Patent Office by an amendment to a divisional application eight years and four months after the filing of the original application, five years after the date of the original Podlesak patent, disclosing the subject matter, and three years after the commencement of the present suit."
"We have no hesitation in saying that the delay was unreasonable, and, under the circumstances shown by the record, constitutes laches, by which the petitioner lost whatever rights it might otherwise have been entitled to."
"Our conclusion therefore is that, in cases involving laches, equitable estoppel, or intervening private or public rights, the two-year time limit prima facie applies to divisional applications, and can only be avoided by proof of special circumstances justifying a longer delay. In other words, we follow in that respect the analogy furnished by the patent reissue cases."
of more than two years in presenting the divisional application. Where there is no abandonment, mere delay in filing a divisional application for not more than two years after an intervening patent or publication does not operate to enlarge the patent monopoly beyond that contemplated by the statute. By Rev.St. § 4886, as amended, delay in filing an application for not more than two years after an intervening patent or publication does not bar a patent unless the invention "is proved to have been abandoned." See Wirebounds Patents Co. et al. v. Saranac Corp., 37 F.2d 830, 840, 841; 65 F.2d 904, 905, 906. And, as none need be shown, there is no occasion to decide whether the facts stated in the second question are sufficient to constitute an excuse for the delay referred to.
As our decision is limited to the first question presented, the judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals will be reversed and the case will be remanded to that court for decision of the other issues in the case in accordance with this opinion.
The first application extended to materials to be used in making center spots as well as to methods for applying them. The second application, because of a requirement of the Patent Office, omitted disclosures as to materials, but included those as to methods that the first contained.
"The improved method of manufacturing caps of the type having an interior disc of cushion material provided on its exposed face with a center spot, which comprises providing spot material in strip form having one surface formed of an exposed continuous coating of water resistant adhesive which is normally hard at room temperature but becomes tacky upon the application of heat and having another surface to be exposed to the contents of a capped container, cutting from said strip a facing spot having one surface completely coated with said adhesive with a cap disposed beneath the portion of the strip from which the spot is cut, whereby the cutting operation positions the spot upon the cushion material with the coating between the spot and the cushion material, and upon assembly applying simultaneously to the spot pressure and sufficient heat to render the adhesive tacky, thereby causing the spot to adhere to the cushion material, and thereafter permitting the adhesive to cool and harden."
Claim 3 repeats the words of claim 1 and adds these words, "while subjecting the assembled unit to pressure."
These claims are fully indicated immediately below. The insertions in brackets give equivalent terms used in the claims of the reissue patent.
"The method of assembling linings [center spots] for sealing pads [cushion material] in receptacle closure caps, consisting in providing caps with sealing pads therein and a web of lining material arranged with an adhesive surface nonviscous at normal temperature, heating the pads in the caps, severing linings from the web of lining material and assembling the linings as they are severed from the web in the caps with the adhesive surface in contact with the heated pads to render the adhesive viscous and effect adhesion of the linings to the pads."
Claim 2 repeats the words of claim 1 and adds these words, "and then placing the linings in the caps under heat and pressure to effect an intimate adhesion between the linings and pads."
Claim 3 repeats the words of claim 1 and the addition of claim 2 and adds these words, "and then placing the linings assembled in the caps under pressure during the cooling thereof."
"Any person who has invented or discovered any new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvements thereof, not known or used by others in this country before his invention or discovery thereof and not patented or described in any printed publication in this or any foreign country before his invention or discovery thereof, or more than two years prior to his application, and not in public use or on sale in this country for more than two years prior to his application, unless the same is proved to have been abandoned, may, upon payment of the fees required by law, and other due proceeding had, obtain a patent therefor."
Cf. Rev.St. § 4887, 35 U.S.C. § 32, relating to inventions patented abroad; Rev.St. § 4897, 35 U.S.C. § 38, relating to renewal application after failure to comply with requirement as to payment of final fee; Rev.St. § 4920, 35 U.S.C. § 69, relating to defense of prior invention.
Rev.St. § 4894, as amended March 3, 1897, 29 Stat. 693.
"All applications for patents shall be completed and prepared for examination within one year after the filing of the application, and in default thereof, or upon failure of the applicant to prosecute the same within one year after any action therein, of which notice shall have been given to the applicant, they shall be regarded as abandoned by the parties thereto, unless it be shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of Patents that such delay was unavoidable."
The statute has since been amended to reduce the period to six months. See 35 U.S.C. § 37.
"In suits to enforce reissue patents, the settled rule of this Court is that a delay for two years or more will 'invalidate the reissue, unless the delay is accounted for and excused by special circumstances, which show it to have been not unreasonable.' . . ."
circumstances justifying a longer delay. In other words, we follow in that respect the analogy furnished by the patent reissue cases."
The rule announced in the Splitedorf case was based upon a long line of decisions of this Court extending from Miller v. Bridgeport Brass Co., 104 U. S. 350, decided in 1882.
"Any practice by the inventor and applicant for a patent through which he deliberately and without excuse postpones beyond the date of the actual invention, the beginning of the term of his monopoly, and thus puts off the free public enjoyment of the useful invention, is an evasion of the statute and defeats its benevolent aim. [Footnote 2/2]"
"An inventor cannot without cause hold his application pending during a long period of years, leaving the public uncertain whether he intends ever to prosecute it and keeping the field of his invention closed against other inventors. [Footnote 2/3]"
"We think they [claims in the patent] are invalid for laches in filing the application for them. [Citing Webster Electric Co. v. Splitedorf Co., supra]. . . . These circumstances [facts of this case] invite operation of the two-year limitation designed to protect the public against obtaining in effect an extension of a patentee's monopoly by apathy and unexcused delay in bringing forward by divisional or reissue applications claims broader than those originally sought."
a "divisional" application was filed for a product patent. January, 1931, a process patent was granted on the original application. More than two years after the original application had merged into a process patent, another application designated as a "divisional" was filed (April 4, 1933), for a second process patent, here involved. The Court of Appeals found this delay of six years to be without justification or excuse. Disregarding the previously recognized requirement that justification and excuse must be proven for such delay, the majority now hold that an applicant can, for six years, delay his claim for an alleged discovery without excuse, justification, or reason for the delay. This is permitted despite the fact that unclaimed disclosure of the alleged invention had been made in the 1927 process application and in the 1930 product application.
Congress, given the power by the Constitution, has fixed the statutory limit of a patent monopoly at seventeen years. [Footnote 2/8] By the procedural device of a "divisional" application, designed to protect rights granted an inventor by statute, petitioner has carved for itself priority monopoly rights, beginning in 1927 and lasting until 1951 -- twenty-four years, or seven years more than Congress has authorized.
or unreasonable delay, will permit an applicant to obtain, by a nonstatutory procedural device, monopoly privileges denied by the reissue statute.
1933. As a result of the destruction of the defense of laches in applying for "divisional" applications, those familiar with a given field of industry may now insert speculative conjectures as disclosures in various applications and permit them to lie dormant until a competitor reduces speculation to practicality. Then, by the device of a "divisional," or if need be, as here, by "divisional" on "divisional," such a competitor can be pursued with infringement suits and harassed into surrendering his business to an ingeniously dilatory applicant. [Footnote 2/12] Thus, sweeping, indefinite and unclaimed disclosures, and adroit use of "divisionals" -- which laches and unreasonable delay are no longer sufficient to bar -- are permitted to extend a patent's statutory life and to increase a patentee's reward beyond that granted by Congress.
"'The patent laws are founded in a large public policy to promote the progress of science and the useful arts. The public therefore is a most material party to, and should be duly considered in, every application for a patent. . . . But the arts and sciences will certainly not be promoted by giving encouragement to inventors to withhold and conceal their inventions for an indefinite time, or to a time when they may use and apply their inventions to their own exclusive advantage, irrespective of the public benefit, and certainly not if the inventor is allowed to conceal his invention to be brought forward in some after time to thwart and defeat a more diligent and active inventor who has placed the benefit of his invention within the reach and knowledge of the public.' [Footnote 2/13]"
See Miller v. Bridgeport Brass Co., 104 U. S. 350, 104 U. S. 355; James v. Campbell, 104 U. S. 356, 104 U. S. 371; Mahn v. Harwood, 112 U. S. 354, 112 U. S. 360; Ives v. Sargent, 119 U. S. 652, 119 U. S. 662; Topliff v. Topliff, 145 U. S. 156, 145 U. S. 170-171; Wollensak v. Sargent, 151 U. S. 221, 151 U. S. 228.
Woodbridge v. United States, 263 U. S. 50, 263 U. S. 56.
Woodbury Patent Planing Machine Co. v. Keith, 101 U. S. 479, 101 U. S. 485.
Frasch v. Moore, 211 U. S. 1, 211 U. S. 9-10; Butterworth v. United States ex rel. Hoe, 112 U. S. 50, 112 U. S. 60.
In re Spitteler, 31 App.D.C. 271, 274, 275.
". . . '[I]t is well established that, for one application to be a division, within the meaning of the law, of another, the two must at some time be co-pending.' . . . Sarfert v. Meyer, 1902 CD. 30; In re Spitteler, 31 App.D.C. 271, 1908 C.D. 374; Wainwright v. Parker, 32 App.D.C. 431, 1909 C.D. 379. . . ."
". . . An application cannot be considered as a continuance of a patent granted prior to the filing thereof, since, after the application has eventuated into a patent, there is nothing left pending before the Patent Office upon which it could act or to which the later application could attach. In re Spitteler, 31 App.D.C. 271, 134 O.G. 1301; Wainwright v. Parker, 32 App.D.C. 431, 142 O.G. 1115, 1909 C.D. 379."
Fessenden v. Wilson, 48 F.2d 422, 424.
See McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. v. Aultman-Miller Co., 169 U. S. 606, 169 U. S. 608, 609.
35 U.S.C. c. 2, § 40.
35 U.S.C. c. 2, § 64.
"It may be desirable to secure the metal foil in position, prior to the heat and pressure steps, sufficiently to prevent dislodgement of the spot during any interval between assembling and final sticking. This may be accomplished, for example, by preheating the assembled crown, to soften the coating as soon as the metal foil spot is deposited. Or the coating may be softened by moistening slightly with a solvent, such as benzol. In either case, the coating becomes tacky enough to hold the metal foil from getting out of position during ordinary passage through assembling apparatus."
"It may be desirable to secure the spot in position, prior to the heat and pressure steps, sufficiently to prevent dislodgement of the spot during any interval between assembling and final sticking. This may be accomplished, for example, by preheating the assembled crown, to soften the coating, as soon as the metal foil is deposited."
Cf. Corbin Cabinet Lock Co. v. Eagle Lock Co., 150 U. S. 38, 150 U. S. 42-43.
Cf. Atlantic Works v. Brady, 107 U. S. 192, 107 U. S. 200.
Woodbridge v. United States, supra, 263 U. S. 61.

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