Task: songer_direct1

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Your task is to determine the ideological directionality of the court of appeals decision, coded as "liberal" or "conservative". Consider liberal to be for government tax claim; for person claiming patent or copyright infringement; for the plaintiff alleging the injury; for economic underdog if one party is clearly an underdog in comparison to the other, neither party is clearly an economic underdog; in cases pitting an individual against a business, the individual is presumed to be the economic underdog unless there is a clear indication in the opinion to the contrary; for debtor or bankrupt; for government or private party raising claim of violation of antitrust laws, or party opposing merger; for the economic underdog in private conflict over securities; for individual claiming a benefit from government; for government in disputes over government contracts and government seizure of property; for government regulation in government regulation of business; for greater protection of the environment or greater consumer protection (even if anti-government); for the injured party in admiralty - personal injury; for economic underdog in admiralty and miscellaneous economic cases. Consider the directionality to be "mixed" if the directionality of the decision was intermediate to the extremes defined above or if the decision was mixed (e.g., the conviction of defendant in a criminal trial was affirmed on one count but reversed on a second count or if the conviction was afirmed but the sentence was reduced). Consider "not ascertained" if the directionality could not be determined or if the outcome could not be classified according to any conventional outcome standards.

LEIBELL, District Judge.
Plaintiff instituted this action on November 17, 1951, under the Declaratory Judgment Act (28 U.S.C. § 2201) to have the defendant’s patent No. 2,177,627, issued to Richard Drew October 31, 1939 declared invalid, or, if valid, then not infringed. On a motion in the District Court the complaint was dismissed on the grounds that no justiciable controversy was stated upon which a claim for relief could be founded and that the court lacked jurisdiction. On appeal, this court (200 F.2d 876) reversed and held that an amendment to the complaint in the interest of clarity, should be allowed. Then followed various procedural steps, resulting in an amended complaint, a supplemental complaint, the defendant’s answer and plaintiff’s reply. In its answer Minnesota set up a counterclaim for an injunction against further infringement of its patent by plaintiff, and for damages. Plaintiff’s reply charged a misuse by defendant of its patent, in that defendant allegedly attempted to extend its patent monopoly to cover unpatented products, that defendant illegally restrained competition, and for those reasons a court of equity should not grant defendant any relief on its counterclaim.
The trial of this case before Judge Bicks took five weeks. On July 18, 1956, he filed his opinion (143 F.Supp. 429) and on July 26th signed a judgment. The judgment declared that (a) all of the sixteen claims of the Drew patent are valid “except claim 9 as to which no adjudication of validity is made, no infringement of said claim having been found”; that (b) the plaintiff had infringed all the claims of the patent (except claim 9); that (c) defendant had not been guilty of inequitable conduct and was not barred from enforcing the patent; that (d) an injunction should issue enjoining and restraining the plaintiff from making or selling any transparent or colored non-fibrous, film-backed pressure-sentitive tape or sheeting embodying the invention of Letters Patent No. 2,177,627; that (e) defendant recover of the plaintiff the damages which defendant had sustained by reason of the aforesaid infringement; and that (f) plaintiff’s complaint, amended complaint and supplemental complaint be dismissed with costs.
The patent expired October 31, 1956. Plaintiff-appellant has filed a substantial bond for any damages ultimately awarded.
On this appeal Technical Tape contends (1) that there was no “invention” in what Drew did (Drew II patent, No. 2.177.627) ; (2) that there was no novelty in what Drew did because other patents anticipated Drew; (3) that plaintiff, Technical Tape, did not infringe the Drew II patent; (4) that Minnesota has abused whatever patent rights it may have had and is entitled to no relief.
Every judge before whom the validity of the Drew II patent (No. 2,-177.627) was litigated in the District Court (Judges Barnes and Campbell in the Northern District of Illinois and Judge Bicks in the Southern District of New York) has held the Drew II patent valid. Judge Sparks and Judge Min-ton of the United States Court of Appeals (7th Cir.) and Judge Baltzell, a District Judge who sat with them and heard the appeals from the judgments entered on the decisions of Judge Barnes upheld the validity of the Drew II patent (159 F.2d 554). We have considered the evidence in this case on the issue of validity and we are convinced that Judge Bicks’ finding of invention and validity should be sustained.
Judge Barnes in Minnesota Mining & Mfg. Co. v. Pax Plastics Corp., D.C., 65 F.Supp. 303, 306, summarizes the salient features of the Drew II patent, as follows:
“The claims in suit are drawn to a new kind of adhesive sheet or tape having a field of utility not possessed by any prior adhesive tape of any kind. Whether transparent or colored, and whether involving a primer or not, this tape is stably and agressively tacky and seals instantly on contact with almost any surface,, without moistening or heating. The backing is a thin transparent film having smooth, glassy surfaces, such as cellophane. Both the colored and transparent types have been widely used for sealing packages. The colored type provides an attractive ■decorative seal for packages and has also been widely used as a coding tape for wires and tubes. The adhesive contains coloring material visible through the transparent film backing and produces the optical illusion that the backing film is colored, thus causing the back surface of the tape to have a lustrous colored appearance. The backing film protects the colored stratum from becoming smeared or dirty in use of the tape, and provides a back surface to which dirt does not readily cling. The transparent type of tape provides an ‘invisible’ sealing, mending and holding tape widely used for sealing packages, mending books, records, maps and charts, and fastening posters on windows and bulletin boards. Both types of tape have many other uses.”
The patent in suit is not invalid on the grounds that it is an aggregation of components that were old. Plaintiff contends that cellophane sheets were old and so was the use of rubber, resin, and rubber-resin adhesive; and that plaintiff’s patent is simply an aggregation of the two. Plaintiff’s premise does not fully state the facts and its conclusion is not correct. Defendant’s aggregation of old elements produced a “new quality” and “function,” and a new article. It contributed something not had before. It added “to the sum of useful knowledge.” It required “more than ordinary mechanical skill” to produce it. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Supermarket Equipment Corp., 340 U.S. 147, at pages 151 and 152, 71 S.Ct. 127, at page 130, 95 L.Ed. 162. A novel combination of old elements which cooperate with each other so as to produce a new and useful result is patentable. Weller Mfg. Co. v. Wen Products, Inc., 7 Cir., 231 F.2d 795, 798; Brown v. Brock, 4 Cir., 240 F.2d 723, 726; Zonolite Co. v. United States, Ct.Cl., 149 F.Supp. 953, 955.
It is defendant’s contention that Drew was the first to produce film backed, normally tacky, pressure-sensitive and water-insoluble adhesive sheets and tape, all of which is clearly and fairly defined in the specifications and claims of the Drew II patent.
The specifications of the Drew II patent use the words “adhesive sheets or tapes” in the first paragraph and many times thereafter, although the claims refer to adhesive sheets. The adhesive sheets of the Drew patent claims could be of any width, such as tape size material.
That Drew’s patent involved invention is established in several ways. It had been sought by expert chemists of the DuPont Co. and of Johnson & Johnson, for a number of years, unsuccessfully. Expanded Metal Co. v. Bradford, 214 U.S. 366, 381, 29 S.Ct. 652, 53 L.Ed. 1034; Loom Co. v. Higgins, 105 U.S. 580, 591, 26 L.Ed. 1177. In his own experiments Drew stumbled upon it. Of course, after Drew’s discovery it all seemed simple. With Drew’s patent to point the way, infringing competitors would claim that it was so obvious that there really was nothing to it; that it did not require anything but mechanical skill and the use of known materials. But the demand had long existed; skilled men had sought to meet the demand without success. Inland Mfg. Co. v. American Wood Rim Co., 6 Cir., 14 F.2d 657, 659. In the recent case of Rohm & Haas Co. v. Roberts Chemicals, Inc., 245 F.2d 562 the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in reversing a District Judge’s holding, 142 F.Supp. 499, that the patent in suit before him was invalid for anticipation, stated:
“Since Hester tried and succeeded where Tisdale and the duPont Company tried and failed, we may fairly conclude that the discovery was not obvious to persons skilled in the art.”
The phenomenal success of the Scotch tape produced by the defendant under Drew’s patent is not to be overlooked in considering the question of invention. The Seventh Circuit called it “quite astonishing.” Drew had hit upon something that was useful in many industries in packaging and sealing their products. Although commercial success is not decisive on the issue of invention it is a factor that should not be ignored. Wahl Clipper Corp. v. Andis Clipper Co., 7 Cir., 66 F.2d 162, 165.
In considering the issue of invention and “how far beyond commonplace contriving was the foresight necessary to think out the combination,” the courts find it enlightening to resort to “the history of what went before, the duration of the period during which the invention was needed but failed to appear and its acceptance when it did.” L. Hand, J., in Landis Mach. Co. v. Parker-Kalon Corp., 2 Cir., 190 F.2d 543, 546. “Substantially all inventions are for the combination of old elements; what counts is the selection, out of all their possible permutations, of that new combination which will be servicable.” Safety Car Heating & Lighting Co. v. General Electric Co., 2 Cir., 155 F.2d 937, 939.
The prior art on which plaintiff-appellant relies on this appeal as anticipating Drew II patent will now be discussed.
Plaintiff points to the Brandenberger French patent (No. 433,999, 1912,) as an example of the prior art that anticipated Drew. Brandenberger’s French patent stated: “The (cellulose) sheets can be bonded by means of any adhesive substance, but, in order to increase their electrical resistance, they can be coated first with linseed oil, a solution of rubber or any insulating varnish. These coatings or varnishes can themselves serve as adhesives.” Brandenberger, while a technical adviser of DuPont, never suggested that his French patent of 1912 would give DuPont the answer to its problem of getting a proper sealing medium for its cellophane. If any of his patents had anticipated Drew, and if Drew merely made such advances over Brandenberger as anyone skilled in the art could have made, it is surprising that Brandenberger did not accomplish this himself. No one was in a better position to do so with his years of experience and all the research resources of DuPont within his reach.
The Kronstein patent (No. 1,944,562) was not mentioned in the opinion of the Seventh Circuit (159 F.2d 554), but it was later considered by Judge Campbell in the Neisner Bros. Inc. case (Minnesota Mining & Mfg. Co. v. Neisner Bros., D.C., 122 F.Supp. 752, 754). He noted the similarity between the Brandenberger French patent No. 433,999 and the Kronstein patent and found that it did not anticipate Drew II. The Brandenberger French patent was intended to increase the insulation feature of cellulose sheets when bonded together by an adhesive substance, which also filled the pores of the sheets. That Kronstein’s ideas were quite similar to Brandenberger’s is not disputed. Both dealt with the use of cellophane as an electrical insulation with an adhesive coating. Judge Campbell pointed out that the “problems which confronted Kronstein and Brandenberger were not the same as those which confronted Drew, and their inventions were designed for correspondingly different uses.”
In the case at bar, the trial judge considered the Kronstein patent and quoted in a footnote to his opinion the finding of Judge Barnes in the Pax case (65 F. Supp. 303) as to the Kronstein patent for an electrical insulating band or ribbon. Neither the French Brandenberger patent nor the Kronstein patent anticipated the Drew II patent.
Plaintiff-appellant argues that the Hodgson patent No. 1,467,108 disclosed the subject matter of the Drew II patent and observes that it is not discussed in the opinion of the District Court in this case. But the District Judge stated in his opinion that he had examined the patents referred to as prior art and compared each with the patent in suit and that the Drew patent is sufficiently distinguished from them.
The Hodgson patent is for a “dental film mount” and was issued September 4, 1923. It states that “This invention relates to mounts for photographic films and particularly to mounts adapted to hold small dental Rontgenographic negatives so that they may be examined by transmitted light, and so that they may be readily filed.” The mount has a window and the film, which is larger than the window opening, is attached to the back of the mount by an adhesive substance. The adhesive is referred to as a “slow-drying adhesive, the desired characteristic being that the adhesive shall remain ‘tacky’ for a very considerable length of time.” The Hodgson patent also states that “While the particular composition of the adhesive is not of importance, it is preferably a composition of rubber and coal tar pitch with any suitable softener such as benzol, gasoline or chloroform.”
The patent describes and shows the mount as consisting of two parts. The face sheet is an opaque fabric with an opening in it. The rear sheet is of opaque paper, with an opening in it slightly larger than the face sheet, so that a small margin of the face sheet is exposed all around the rear sheet, when covered by the face sheet. An adhesive is applied to all of the back of the face sheet and when the rear sheet is applied to the face sheet, it will stick to it and at the same time leave a small margin of the rear of the face sheet, with the adhesive thereon, exposed around the opening. The negative may be pressed down from the rear around the aperture against the exposed small margin of the front sheet with the adhesive thereon, and is thus held in place — “but should it be desirable for any reason to remove the negative this can be done since it can be stripped from the adhesive without injury to its diagnostic value.” That is so because the picture on the film is so centered that it does not reach to the outer parts of the film which were applied to the exposed adhesive part of the mount. What happens to the adhesive when the film is removed? Does some of it detach itself from the paper mount and adhere to the film? Does all the adhesive remain on the paper mount? Does all of it attach itself to the film? The patent is silent as to that. And Mr. Shalita, in explaining the Hodgson patent for the plaintiff, admitted that it did not say that the adhesive was non-offsetting or transparent.
The Hodgson patent in no way anticipated the Drew II patent. It does not teach what the Drew II patent taught, nor does it claim anything like what is claimed in the Drew II patent. A comparison of the claims of the two patents proves that absolutely.
Plaintiff complains that defendant’s main answer to the Hodgson patent is to scoff at it. The fact is that in all the cases in the District Courts in which Hodgson has been cited as anticipating Drew II, it has been ignored by the courts, as not worthy of any discussion. The Seventh Circuit found no merit in the contention that Hodgson’s patent anticipated the Drew II patent. And as defendant’s counsel herein remarks “there is no evidence that anyone was ever inspired by it to conceive of Drew’s entirely different product.” We agree with the conclusion of the Seventh Circuit that the Hodgson patent did not in any way anticipate the disclosures of the claims in suit.
A basic difference between the Drew I patent (No. 1,760,820) and the Drew II patent (No. 2,177,627) is that the former applied an adhesive to a porous backing such as “paper or similar fabric material,” while the latter applied an adhesive to a non-fibrous film backing. Drew I also refers to a “unified cellulosic backing” which is defined as meaning “to include a web of fabric comprising paper chosen from the materials herein described including gelatinized eellulosic sheets such as parchmentized paper” and various other types of paper, treated with various compositions. Parchmentized paper is not transparent; and it is not non-fibrous or non-porous. No one of the six claims of the Drew I patent mentions a “film backing.” In Drew II the term “film backing” is used in all the claims except 9 and 10. Claim 9 uses the expression “regenerated cellulose film,” and Claim 10 a “non-fibrous film.”
That plaintiff infringed the Drew II patent is clear from the supplemental complaint [paragraph 8(c)] and the Agreed Statement (Ex. B) [paragraphs 5(a), (b), (c) and 9]. The use of a primer is included in Claims 10, 11 and 16 of the Drew II patent. But the use of a primer is not essential to producing a satisfactory tape under the other claims of the patent (except Claim 9, not relied on by defendant).
The exception mentioned in paragraph 9 of the Agreed Statement limited that admission to the use by plaintiff, in one of its tapes, of an adhesive coating “prepared from polyvinyl ether rather than rubber and resin.” The latter is a second type of accused tape, which used an adhesive very similar to that which Judge Campbell had before him in the Neiser case (101 F.Supp. 926, and 122 F.Supp. 752, 754). Even if the equivalent plaintiff used was unknown at the time of Drew’s invention, it was none the less an equivalent and infringed — Finkelstein v. S. H. Kress & Co., 2 Cir., 113 F.2d 431, 433. The substitute functions in the same way as the original and produces the same result.
Judge Barnes had decided the suits of Minnesota against Freydberg and against Bulkley in Minnesota’s favor on March 30, 1946, D.C., 65 F.Supp. 303, affirmed 7 Cir., 159 F.2d 554 on January 9, 1947. The tape they sold as Illinois distributors of Cofax was made by Cofax, a New York corporation. The plaintiff, Technical Tape Corporation, a Delaware corporation, was organized in 1947, with a place of business in New York City. In August or September 1947 plaintiff hired Shalita, who had worked for Cofax from 1942 to early 1946 and then for another concern. Shalita became a director and Vice-President of plaintiff. Mr. Cohen, the President of Technical, testified that plaintiff leased a factory in October 1947 and began production in the late Spring of 1948. At first plaintiff produced paper backed and cloth tapes, like the masking tape'of the Drew I patent, which had expired on May 27, 1947. Later it also manufactured cellophane backed tapes and tapes having backings with non-fibrous surfaces. According to the supplemental complaint, at least as early as 1950, plaintiff was preparing to manufacture film backed pressure-sensitive adhesive tape and had requested in writing a license from defendant which was refused in September and October 1950. It also appears that as early as October 1950 plaintiff had had a Canadian affiliate manufacturing the said tape upon instruction of plaintiff and that plaintiff had imported the tape from Canada. Also, according to the supplemental complaint plaintiff, itself, has manufactured cellophane backed pressure-sensitive adhesive tape of the kind defendant charged was being manufactured and sold by plaintiff in infringement of Drew II patent, No. 2,177,267, since as early as about May 1951 and had sold such tape in the United States since prior to November 17, 1951.
Plaintiff’s infringement of defendant’s patent was deliberate. When he was seeking a license from Minnesota the plaintiff’s president declared he would make a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape whether or not he got the license. He read the Drew II patent a hundred times. He persuaded Beyer, an employee of Minnesota’s, a quality control man who had access to and understood Minnesota’s ‘standard books’ which were in code, to enter plaintiff’s employ in May 1951 and to head plaintiff’s quality control department; and he advised Beyer to keep from his employer (Minnesota) the fact that he was to enter plaintiff’s employ. He hired an expert, Shalita, who had made an infringing tape for Cofax Corporation. That was the tape involved in Minnesota’s suit against Freydberg, and its suit against Bulkley, heard by Judge Barnes who held that the Cofax tape infringed Minnesota’s tape. The judgments were affirmed in 159 F.2d 554. Shalita had made tapes from the Drew patent examples. With that group around him, the president of the plaintiff-appellant herein, finally made a tape which was so similar to Minnesota’s in every respect that at the trial even he could not tell the one from the other, without an identifying name on the core. The Technical Tape Corporation was a willful infringer. Colgate-Palmolive Co. v. Carter Products, 4 Cir., 230 F.2d 855.
Defendant’s Alleged “Misuse” of the Drew II Patent
As a special defense to defendant’s counterclaim for patent infringement, plaintiff charges that the defendant has “misused” the Drew II patent (No. 2,-177,627), and does not come into court with clean hands; and therefore asks that defendant be denied any relief on its counterclaim. Plaintiff contends that 3M abused its patent monopoly on transparent adhesive tape (Drew II patent) in two ways: (1) by selling its transparent adhesive tape on the condition that the purchaser thereof buy other 3M tape not covered by the patent in suit (citing Morton Salt Co. v. G. S. Suppiger Co., 314 U.S. 488, 315 U.S. 788, 62 S.Ct. 402, 86 L.Ed. 363); and (2) by selling its patented transparent adhesive tape on the condition that the purchaser thereof refrain from buying other adhesive tape products, not covered by the patent in suit, from any other manufacturer (citing F. C. Russell Company v. Consumers Insulation Company, 3 Cir., 226 F.2d 373).
To support the charge of “misuse” plaintiff took the depositions of six distributors, and at the trial produced oral testimony of a seventh distributor, and his wife.
The seven distributors are:' Lloyd’s Office Supply of Pawtucket, Rhode Island (an Industrial Tape Division account); Edwards Paper Company of Roxbury, Massachusetts (an Industrial Tape Division account); Southern Stamp and Stationery Company of Richmond, Virginia (an Industrial Tape Division account); Cammaek Office Supply of Burlington, North Carolina (a Wholesale-Retail Tape Division account); Anchor Office Supply Company of Cleveland, Ohio (a Wholesale-Retail Tape Division account) ; Crown Office Supply Company of Chicago, Illinois (a Wholesale-Retail Tape Division account); and Aviation Service Supply Company of Denver, Colorado (an Automotive Tape Division account). Plaintiff also examined before trial A1 Drew, defendant’s New England District Sales Director of its Industrial Sales Division. Both sides read parts of Drew’s deposition into the record of the trial. All the depositions were received as exhibits.
The defendant rebutted the charge of misuse, by the cross-examination of the distributors whose depositions were taken, by the cross-examination of the Arnolds, by using parts of the deposition of A1 Drew, by testimony of Charles C. Smith, General Manager of the defendant’s Cellophane Tape Division for the Wholesale-Retail trade, and by testimony of John J. Bennison, the Eastern Regional Sales Manager for the Industrial Trade Division of defendant.
Concerning the seven distributors, the trial judge stated in his opinion: “The situation with respect to each of these seven distributors has been considered and the Court is satisfied that the conduct of 3M (the defendant) in each instance was motivated solely by honest business considerations in no wise related to an attempt to extend the monopoly of the Drew Patent.”
A jobber who resorted to the disparagement of defendant’s products in order to substitute other and cheaper brands of tape, including infringing brands of tape, where the customer wanted defendant’s tapes; a jobber who did not deal fairly with defendant’s products in displaying and selling them; a jobber who was more interested in pushing the sales of competitors’ products to the detriment of defendant’s products; a jobber with only a few customers, who made no effort to sell defendant’s products ; a jobber who faked so called “drop shipment” orders to mislead the defendant and thus gain a larger discount; a jobber who was habitually delinquent in paying his bills — jobbers who did any of those things were not desirable distributors of defendant’s products and defendant was not required to continue them as distributors.
A “drop shipment” order called for direct shipment of 3M’s products to the jobber’s customer. The jobber would receive a trade discount on such orders, because as a rule they were large and saved 3M warehousing expense. Some jobbers submitted fictitious orders and thereafter picked up the goods themselves to be utilized as stock inventory, thereby receiving a trade discount which was not given on purchases by jobbers for their own stock inventory.
The so-called “select distributorship policy” concerning which A1 Drew was exammed, was developed by the Industrial Tape Division about mid-summer of 1953. It did not apply to any other tape division of the 3M organization. Two of the five distributors (Aviation and Crown), alleged to have been cut off because of their refusal to agree to the select distributorship policy, were not industrial jobbers within the jurisdiction of 3M’s Industrial Tape Division.
As to the three remaining, Southern was cut off from 3M’s tape products in December of 1953 for reasons stated herein in footnote 7. There is nothing in the testimony to support plaintiff’s contention that Southern was cut off because it refused to accept the so-called “select distributorship policy.” Likewise there was no connection between Edwards being cut off as a 3M distributor and the select distributorship policy of the 3M Industrial Tape Division. Edwards was cut off for other reasons, as indicated in footnote 7, some four or five months prior to the time the “select distributorship policy” was proposed by 3M’s Industrial Tape Division.
The testimony of Arnold and his wife (Lloyd’s Office Supply Co.) that in September of 1953 he was informed that 3M had a new company policy and that under such policy Lloyd, if it wished to continue selling 3M tape would have to agree to shop selling Technical Tape, and that when he refused he was cut off, was inconsistent with the testimony of A1 Drew, who denied that any proposal of select distributorship was made to Lloyd’s Office Supply Company, and was inconsistent with the testimony of Bennison and Smith, witnesses at the trial, who testified that 3M does not have a sales policy requiring a jobber or distributor to sell only 3M tape and to refrain from selling other competitive brands. Apparently the trial judge accepted the testimony of Messrs. Bennison and Smith, which he had a right to dp. He saw and heard the witnesses in question.
As stated in International Bureau v. Bethlehem Steel Co., 2 Cir., 192 F.2d 304, 306:
“It is a familiar principle that on appeal in cases tried by the court without a jury findings of fact will be given effect unless shown to be clearly erroneous. [Citing cases.] And, indeed, that principle, together with the correlative one that due regard be given to the opportunity of a trial judge in a non-jury case to determine the credibility of witnesses who appear and testify before him, is firmly embodied in Rule 52(a) F.R.C.P., 28 U.S.C.A.”
The trial judge did not specifically discuss A1 Drew’s testimony in his opinion, but he did state (as a finding of fact based on the evidence) that defendant distributes its products through upwards of 30,000 outlets, including 6,000 paper wholesalers and 4,000 commercial stationers; that many thousands of defendant’s distributors and jobbers handle competitive tapes and that “3M” (Minnesota) has never required either that they handle its tapes exclusively; or that as a condition of buying one type of 3M tape, that they should also buy another.
The trial record on the issue of the so-called “select distributorship policy” proposal, shows that the proposal was made only to certain jobbers or distributors, who were thought to be qualified and not to all the jobbers served by 3M’s Industrial Tape Division; that the proposal was not made on any either-or basis, i. e. that if rejected the distributor would be cut off from 3M products; that the acceptance was purely voluntary on the part of the jobber; that the proposal was rejected by some distributors; that those who rejected the proposal were not cut off from 3M products; and that those who accepted the proposals received increased technical service and assistance while those who rejected the proposals, together with other jobbers or distributors who did not qualify, continued to receive 3M products and the technical service and assistance theretofore given them. This fact situation in the case at bar is in no way comparable to that before the Third Circuit in F. C. Russell Company v. Consumers Insulating Company, supra.
The trial judge also found that a large percentage of distributors identified by the President of Technical Tape as 3M distributors in the New York area are, according to his testimony, also distributors of Technical Tape’s products; and that many Technical Tape jobbers or distributors also handle 3M products.
The trial court’s opinion refers to the practices condemned by the doctrine of the Morton Salt Co. v. G. S. Suppiger Co., 314 U.S. 488, 315 U.S. 788, 62 S.Ct. 402, 86 L.Ed. 363 (which declared that a court of equity will not lend its aid to protect a patent monopoly when the patentee is using the patent as an effective means of restraining competition with the sale of its unpatented articles) the trial court stated: “There has been a complete failure of proof that the sales policy of 3M falls within the interdicted conduct.” And there is no proof that defendant violated Section 3 of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C.A. § 14). In fact the proof is to the contrary. The defense of “misuse” by defendant of its Drew II patent, appears to be something that plaintiff sought in vain to construct, in order to escape the consequences of its own deliberate and profitable infringement.
A manufacturer has the right to stop dealing with a distributor or jobber who is acting unfairly towards his product or is trying to undermine his trade. That seems to be a proper corollary of Eastern States Retail Lumber Dealers’ Ass’n v. United States, 234 U.S. 600, at page 614, 34 S.Ct. 951, at page 955, 58 L.Ed. 1490, where it was held that:
“A retail dealer has the unquestioned right to stop dealing with a wholesaler for reasons sufficient to himself, and may do so because he thinks such' dealer is acting unfairly in trying to undermine his trade.”
Ordinarily a manufacturer may refuse to deal with a distributor or jobber for reasons sufficient to himself. United States v. Colgate & Co., 250 U.S. 300, 307, 39 S.Ct. 465, 63 L.Ed. 992; United States v. Schrader’s Son, Inc., 252 U.S. 85, 97, 40 S.Ct. 251, 64 L.Ed. 471; and Brosious v. Pepsi-Cola Co., 3 Cir., 155 F.2d 99, 101-102. Of course, this right of a manufacturer must be exercised in good faith, and within the restrictions of the Clayton Act, and may not be exercised in such a manner so as to “substantially lessen competition” or “tend to create a monopoly” in any line of commerce.
The record in the case does not establish that 3M’s refusal to sell to five of the abovenamed distributors was done in bad faith, and had as its purpose to substantially lessen competition, or had a tendency to create a monopoly. Further, the Clayton Act was not intended to reach every remote lessening of competition. Standard Fashion Co. v. Magrane-Houston Co., 258 U.S. 346, 356-357, 42 S.Ct. 360, 66 L.Ed. 653.
There has been no showing here that “competition has been foreclosed in a substantial share of the line of commerce affected,” by the so-called select distributorship policy. Standard Oil Co. of Cal. and Standard Stations v. United States, 337 U.S. 293, 69 S.Ct. 1051, 1062, 93 L.Ed. 1371; Dictograph Products v. Federal Trade Commission, 2 Cir., 217 F.2d 821, 825. This is not a case where the manufacturer imposed a uniform exclusive dealing contract on its jobbers and distributors, such as was the situation in the Dictograph and Russell cases, hereinbefore cited, on which plaintiff relies.
The judgment of the District Court is in all respects affirmed.
. The opening paragraph of Drew’s patent No. 2,177,627 states:
“This invention relates to adhesive sheets having a backing with a non-fibrous surface (such as normal or waterproofed films of regenerated cellulose) and a coating of normally tacky and pressure-sensitive adhesive united thereto. While not limited thereto, the invention relates especially to transparent adhesive sheets, to adhesive sheets in the form of adhesive tapes which may be sold in stacked or coiled form, and to adhesive sheets or tapes which are well adapted to the sealing or securing of wrappers composed of non-fibrous lustrous cellulosic films and the like.”
The adhesive tape made by defendant under the Drew patent is familiarly known as “Scotch” cellophane tape.
. The Drew II patent (No. 2,177,627) after briefly describing the invention in its opening paragraph (footnote 1), mentions the packaging problems which it would help solve. Those problems arose from the use of “packaging and wrapping sheets composed of thin, transparent and flexible non-fibrous films” and the need for sealing or fastening the sheets with proper adhesives, a need which the old conventional adhesives could not meet because of “the nonporous or highly glazed surfaces provided by this type of sheet material” which is transparent and waterproof.
The patent then goes on to describe how, under Drew’s invention, the sheets of film material “are provided with coatings of normally tacky and pressure-sensitive adhesive firmly united thereto.” These and other characteristics of the adhesive are discussed in the patent as follows:
“By ‘normally tacky and pressure-sensitive’ it is meant that under ordinary atmospheric conditions the adhesive is stably in a condition such that it does not need to be activated by solvents or heat or otherwise prepared in order to secure good adherence to surfaces against which the adhesive coating (with its backing) may be pressed when used. An adhesive coating is provided which enables the adhesive sheeting to be affixed to smooth lustrous surfaces, such as non-fibrous cellulosic surfaces of wrapping or packaging sheets or films. An object of the invention is to provide a unified adhesive coating possessed of such coherence in relation to adhesiveness and so firmly united to its backing that the adhesive sheet may be stripped from smooth non-fibrous surfaces (not possessing special chemical affinity for the adhesive), to which it may have been temporarily applied, without offsetting of adhesive material. Hence the adhesive coating may be termed ‘non-offsetting,’ and this expression designates an important physical or physico-chemical property or characteristic of the adhesive coating, namely, that its coherency is greater than its adhesiveness. Further, an object is to provide adhesive sheets having an adhesive coating that is in elastic equilibrium with its backing so that warping and curling of the sheet, and blistering of the adhesive coating, are avoided.”
The drawings accompanying the patent show three figures, which are described on pago 1 of the patent as follows:
“Fig. 1 shows a roll of adhesive tape, the tape having a non-fibrous film backing provided with a water-insoluble normally tacky and pressure-sensitive adhesive coating, which may be unwound without delamination or offsetting of adhesive;
“Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional representation of a construction in which a primer coating is interposed between the

Question: What is the ideological directionality of the court of appeals decision?
A. conservative
B. liberal
C. mixed
D. not ascertained
Answer:

Answer: A