Task: songer_geniss

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Your task is to identify the issue in the case, that is, the social and/or political context of the litigation in which more purely legal issues are argued. Put somewhat differently, this field identifies the nature of the conflict between the litigants. The focus here is on the subject matter of the controversy rather than its legal basis. Consider the following categories: "criminal" (including appeals of conviction, petitions for post conviction relief, habeas corpus petitions, and other prisoner petitions which challenge the validity of the conviction or the sentence), "civil rights" (excluding First Amendment or due process; also excluding claims of denial of rights in criminal proceeding or claims by prisoners that challenge their conviction or their sentence (e.g., habeas corpus petitions are coded under the criminal category); does include civil suits instituted by both prisoners and callable non-prisoners alleging denial of rights by criminal justice officials), "First Amendment", "due process" (claims in civil cases by persons other than prisoners, does not include due process challenges to government economic regulation), "privacy", "labor relations", "economic activity and regulation", and "miscellaneous".

EVANS, Circuit Judge.
Appellants and appellee are competitors engaged in making and selling soap. Their activities cover the entire industry. The competition and the competitive methods which led to this litigation concern themselves with laundry soap. The size of this branch of the industry as conducted by the three parties to the litigation is tremendous.
Appellants assert that they jointly own the patent covering the product of the inventive mind which produced a better and more acceptable soap than was ever before offered to the housewife or the laundryman. They ask the court for the protection which this discovery deserves. Appellee denies all such claims of merit and distinction, disputes all its adversaries’ asserted right to patent protection, and denies infringement ; hence, this controversy.
The patent granted to Dallas R. Lamout (and assigned to appellants) to reward one who made an original and unusually valuable contribution to the science of soap making, is asserted and assailed. The validity of the patent is denied; its infringement is disputed.
Many hundreds of thousand words have been spoken by witnesses who proclaimed their belief in the merit of Lamont’s discovery. An equal number of witnesses assert that it would be a travesty on justice to honor Lamont with the name of inventor or to characterize what his coworker did, as invention.
The District Court held the patent was not infringed. On the issue of validity, he found not squarely, but invoked disputes over inferences when he used the following language:
“Lamont patent is invalid unless limited to a process of controlled steam inflation and the product thereof and as so limited is not infringed.”
Validity and infringement of patent No. 1,652,900, issued December 13, 1927, to Dallas R. Lamont, are the subjects of our inquiry. The patent consisting of eleven claims covers both soap products and processes of manufacturing soap. The product is almost exclusively used for laundry purposes.
Lamont was an employee of the Industrial Spray Drying Company, which was entitled to his discoveries and inventions and to whom he duly assigned his patent. Through appropriate steps, the title and right to use the patent were transferred to appellants. Colgate-PalmolivePeet Company, formerly Colgate & Company, obtained an exclusive license and started production in 1927 of a soap, called Super Suds. The appellant, Procter & Gamble, soon came out with a product known as Selox. The latter company was sued for infringement, and it purchased a half interest in the patent.
In 1929, appellee, a pioneer and always a very large manufacturer of soap for laundry purposes, brought out a laundry soap. It obtained patents which covered both the product and the process for making this soap. The extent and rapidity with which this so-called new laundry soap business grew is shown by the fact that in 1930, three years after the appearance of Super Suds, the public had used 500,000,000 cartons of the combined products of the parties. It may be fairly and conservatively said, speaking generally and not technically, that the soaps made by the parties to this litigation, for laundry purposes, are much alike. Admittedly they today dominate the field of granular washing soap.
Appellee called its laundry soap Rinso long before 1927. It never changed its name. Appellants assert that while the. name remained the same, the product, and the process by which the soap was made, changed after appellants brought out their soap made in accordance with Lamont’s patent teachings.
Colgate first called its soap made under the Lamont patent, Super Suds. It later brought out Palmolive Beads.
Procter & Gamble has given its laundry soap different names: Selox, Chipso, Chipso Granules, Oxydol, and Ivory Snow.
' The application for Lamont’s patent was made May 25, 1927, and it issued December 13, 1927. The specifications are extremely long and somewhat involved. There are eleven claims of which eight are contested. The first five are product claims. Three process claims, 7, 8, and 9, are also in issue. In the margin appear claim 2, a product claim, and claims 7 and 8, two process claims. These claims are presented as typical. Appellee emphasizes claim 1, a product claim, and it is also reproduced in the margin.
A brief statement of the history and the art of soap making, as well as a statement of what Lamont did, follows:
Commercial soap is ordinarily made by boiling soda lye and fats and oils in a kettle. When salt water is added to the mass, the kettle contents separate into layers of which the top one forms the basis for the ordinary soap of commerce. This material at kettle temperature is a molten mass and its composition is surprisingly constant at 70 per cent solids combined with 30 per cent water. At the temperature at which this soap is finished, i. e., between 170° and 212° F¡, the soap is a heavy moltei? mass and will flow in the mass, although it is not a liquid and is not free-flowing. In this condition the soap is called kettle soap, or more technically, neat soap. This condition is spoken of as the “neat soap” phase.
When neat soap is cooled to a temperature of 150° F. or below, it changes and becomes what is known as solid soap. Also if moisture is driven out of soap when in the neat soap phase, the transformation point from the neat phase to the solid phase takes place at higher and higher temperatures.
Appellants claim Lamont taught the art to spray this nonliquid material when in the neat phase, and during its transformation into the solid phase, to cause the soap substance itself to divide into particles which may be described as puffed or inflated.
If solid soap containing the percentage of water of neat soap is heated to a point above 150° F. (depending somewhat upon the particular fats used), the material is transformed into its neat soap or kettle soap phase, but once this phase has been reached, further rise in temperature can be continued without reducing the viscosity of the soap although in some instances its stringiness can be reduced at the higher temperatures. This quality of soap constitutes a sharp distinction between it and other kinds of heat fusible material, which as heat is increased become more fluid.
Appellants assert that the usual practice in spray processing of other materials required them to be first brought to a condition which formed fine round drops when sprayed which is impossible with neat soap. Neat soap is not film forming and will not break up into true drops when sprayed. It merely breaks into fragments.
Another phase in which soap can and does exist, is the “nigre” or soap solution phase. This phase, as in the instance of the neat phase, has a definite water content, and cannot exist with less than about 70 per cent of water. At a temperature around 170° F. and above, it is a true free-flowing thin liquid. When at lower temperature, about 150° F., and below, nigre does not change into solid soap but instead congeals into a wet-gelatinous, elastic-like material.
The nigre phase of soap is one in which the material can readily be sprayed, but when it is sprayed and dried by driving out moisture, it does not puff.
Intermediate between neat soap and nigre in respect of moisture content, is a substance known as “middle soap.” Where water is present in soap in an amount less than about 70 per cent, and greater than about 30 per cent, middle soap exists. At kettle temperature it is a thick viscous gum, and further heating does not change its consistency. At no temperature can it be pumped or sprayed, and it can be stirred only with great difficulty. Below about 150° F. it congeals into an opaque, rubbery mass.
The existence of this middle soap phase is important in the present case because attempts to bring neat soap into a condition for spraying by thinning it with water are all hut impossible. Soap solution can practicably only be made by dissolving small pieces of solid soap in a large amount of water, i. e., by adding soap to water and not water to soap. Thus soap is a substance which has to be made into a thin solution to bring it to readily sprayable condition, but this cannot ordinarily be done by the addition of water to neat soap.
Of the three phases of soap, neat soap, middle soap and nigre, the only one which is film forming and which will form round drops upon being sprayed is nigre. The drop or rounded form is a valuable property in any spray process product and Lamont, although he sprayed neat soap and hence did not form round drops in * his spray, yet by reason of his later puffing treatment converted the material into gen-'erally rounded particles,. and moreover into particles of substantial size.
Soap also is heat sensitive and will burn at temperatures in the neighborhood of 385° F.
When sodium silicate is added or mixed in kettle soap, in a crutcher, as is ordinarily done, the neat or kettle soap remains in the “neat” condition although the water content may go as high as 40 per cent without reaching the middle soap phase. If the mix is treated with water there is a production of “middle soap” in the same manner as when water is added to kettle soap. There is no distinction therefore between kettle or “neat soap” in the pure state and with an appropriate amount of silicate of soda added. Both have the same phase characteristics.
The spray processing, with which the present patent is concerned in its process aspects, can be divided into two general classes in the prior art, spray cooling (where the sprayed particle becomes' solid during its passage from the spray to the point of collection due to drop in temperature) and spray drying (in which moisture or other solvent is driven off from the sprayed particles leaving them at the final temperature of collection in a solid state for this reason).
Neat soap is a substance which recommends itself to spray cooling, because it changes to solid phase at a relatively high temperature. Only one commercial attempt to spray cool neat soap appears of record, and the substance was not particularly desirable because it was in large, jagged fragments, without puffing. Such a substance is not free flowing as it would be if in rounded particles. Such a product is not soluble in the manner of a puffed soap particle.
Neat soap when much of the moisture has been driven off burns quite readily.
Substances which had formerly been spray dried at high temperatures showed a tendency to glaze. Neat soap particles with a glaze upon them would resist ready solubility. Lamont found that neat soap would puff at high temperatures and not glaze.
A common practice in spray drying was to preconcentrate the material, such as milk, before spraying for purposes of economy. Neat soap could not be preconcentrated. Nigre soap cannot be preconcentrated because it will turn into middle soap, which cannot be pumped nor sprayed. ■
As a result of the peculiarities of neat soap, soap makers changed its nature by the addition of harsh chemicals prior to spraying.
They added soda ash to the product. The result of adding soda ash in sufficient quantities to neat soap is that it becomes in the hot state a composition of particles of matter floating in a liquid, a condition known as a “slurry.” Slurries can be thinned by water, or if too thin, can be thickened by boiling. Hence spraying of soap-soda ash compositions did not present any conditioning problem preparatory to spraying.
A soap-soda ash composition solidifies quickly because the soda ash takes up water rapidly. Hence it is adapted to spray cooling. No heated drying air is required, and the final product will contain the same moisture content as the original slurry, in the usual practice.
Such a product is known on the market as washing powder, or by a term “soap powder.” In the instant case it is necessary to distinguish between soap powder and powdered soap, the latter being the terms applied to soap when it is ground up from the solid state.
Soap powder or washing powder is a harsh, chemical detergent. Its action is drastic. It acts chemically in attacking dirt, whereas soap acts through suds, and tends to emulsify the dirt.
It was soap powder which constituted the commercial laundry soap product, which had been made and sold in large quantities by soap makers.
Attempts had been made in the art to spray dry soap, in contradistinction to spray cooling, although this was only experimental. The workers invariably reduced the neat soap to a nigre or soap solution before spraying, and what they made was a very fine powdery and dusty product, of glassy thin-walled particles. This product lumped and balled when stirred into warm water.
There had been flaked soap on the market, this being the most widely used form of soap dispensed in packages.
There had been powdered soaps on the market, and granular soaps in coarser form, these being solid soap reduced by mechanical grinding. The powdered soaps are dusty and lump and ball badly in warm water. The granular (larger sized chunks) do not possess any puffed quality, and naturally are not rounded in form and are slow to dissolve.
Neat soap, the soap phase with which Lamont dealt, is a material which appellants describe as sui generis. It cannot be water thinned, or heat plasticized beyond a certain point. It cannot be sprayed to form true drops. The substance can be spray cooled, but not to form a satisfactory product. The commercial package soaps prior to Lamont had been flaked soap, powdered soap, and granulated soap, all of these beiug made from soap which was first brought to solid form and then granulated.
The spray processed soap product which had been commercialized prior to Lamont, was not unadulterated soap, but was a soap-soda ash composition called soap powder or washing powder.
Lamont’s Product. It may be fairly said that the Lamont patent deals with finely divided soap products, the material used being soap as distinguished from soap powder or washing soap in which soda ash predominates. Lamont uses molten soap taken from ordinary kettle soap. He claims his soap is more quickly and completely soluble than soap flakes, less fragile, so less likely to break up in the package. His product is distinguishable from granular or shredded soaps or soap powder in that it is less dusty and more soluble. For his product it is claimed that it is more uniform, flows more freely from carton, and does not lump when spread over water. The novel characteristics of his soap are set forth by counsel as follows:
“(a) rounded particle shape, not geometric spheres, but characteristically near spherical, potato shaped and reasonably smooth rounded formation * * * as distinguished from fragmentary, sharp cornered or shredded conformation; (b) particle size readily perceptible to the unaided eye, giving in the mass the appearance of independent balls with interstices visible between them.”
Qualities (a) and (b) taken together give the product a free-flowing, non-caking, non-lumping, and dust free characteristic which are desirable and novel. There is evidence to support these claims so stoutly asserted by appellants.
His process claims call for a structure with a tower. The soap is sprayed, etc., and the product passes out of the bottom. It is not contended that the apparatus is novel, but patentable novelty is asserted for the process by which the soap is treated.
We herewith set forth, greatly abbreviated, the substance of the inventor’s own statement as it appears in the specifications. We have however eliminated, because of its great length, his description of the various steps in his process, including temperature statements.
“The * * * invention relates to the production of a soap product in reasonably fine state of division, * * * having certain useful novel physical properties and with a process of obtaining and controlling these physical properties in the product. The invention contemplates * * a. * * * soap as ordinarily produced by * * * commercial manufacture * * * which product * * * is * * * distinguished from so-called soap powders or washing powders which contain a predominating proportion of soda ash or similar ingredient. * * * The * * * invention is based on the discovery that a new product * * * can be produced * * * from molten soap of the usual composition and heavy flowing but not particularly viscid consistency ordinarily obtained in the manufacture of soap which is essentially different from products heretofore produced directly from such molten soap.
“Soap flakes, chips and the like, are not quickly and completely soluble in water of temperature convenient for washing. When the usual soap flakes are poured into water and stirred * * * they may be seen for some time * * * partly undissolved, and if not stirred until completely dissolved some part * * * collects at the bottom of the dish. * * * Undissolved soap frequently sticks to garments being washed and appears as a spot on the laundered article. Also, in washing machines, a considerable amount of the soap usually passes the washing machine undissolved. The most quickly * * * and most nearly * * * soluble soap flakes are those which are the thinnest, and * * * (such) are quite frail and * * * break up during manufacture, shipment and use so that a considerable amount of dust forms. * * * Soaps in finely divided condition, granulated soaps, shredded soaps, soap powders, and the like are usually dusty and cause discomfort to the user. Such soaps tend to lump in water and remain partly undissolved. * * * (They) * * * cannot be poured * * * out of the package with * * * exactness as to amount. They frequently cake * * * in the carton and to be shaken out at all, require the removal of a substantial piece of the carton. The product of the present invention is uniform in particle size and is quickly and completely soluble; it is free-flowing and does not lump or cake in the carton or in water, and it is not dusty, * * * (which) qualities * * * give it a usefulness not heretofore obtained. * * * A description and definition of the product in terms of these qualities * * * (and) structural and * * * physical properties * * * which give it such qualities, and a * * * definition of the process by which such product is obtained constitute the- subject matter of this.application.'
“The drawings * * * illustrate certain of the novel physical properties of the product and show an apparatus in which the process of the present invention can be successfully conducted. * * *
“The process of the present invention involves a spray treatment and drying of * * * soap material under certain particular controlled process conditions. * * * The apparatus consists basically of the principal drying or treating chamber 1. The molten soap is delivered into the tower 1 in the form of a spray by means of nozzles 2 locáted at appropriate intervals about the periphery of the upper end of the tower 1, as shown. The soap is delivered to the nozzles 2 through the soap line 3 which communicates with the soap mixing tanks or crutchers 4. The soap is withdrawn from the crutcher 4 by means of a suitable pump 5 and is forced through the heater 6 into line 3 and from thence to nozzles 2. The pump 5 maintains the soap in line 3 and at the nozzles 2 at a pressure appropriate for properly spraying the soap,.as it issues from the nozzles, into uniform and reasonably finely divided condition. The heater 6 is preferably provided with a thermostatic control device 7 which controls admission of heating steam to the heater and thus "regulates the temperature of the soap discharged from the heater to a substantially constant proper value. The line 3 beyond the heater 6 is steam jacketed, and the steam supplied to the line is regulated by an automatic pressure controlling device 8 which functions to maintain the steam at a pressure which is equivalent to the condensation pressure for steam at a temperature equal to that of the soap as it leaves the heater 6. With this arrangement the temperature of the soap leaving the heater remains the same until the soap is delivered into the tower 1 through the nozzles 2, and a uniform temperature of the soap at all of the nozzles 2 is assured.
“The heated drying or treating gas is supplied to the tower 1 through duct 9 * * * which enters the top of the tower as shown. Inside of the tower under the discharge end of the duct 9 is located a distributor 10 designed to distribute th’e incoming gas uniformly across the section of the tower and to restrict whirling and eddying of the gas as it enters the tower. The distributor 10 is positioned above the soap nozzles 2 so that at the time the gas comes into contact with the soap particles issuing from the nozzles it is distributed reasonably uniformly across the tower and is proceeding downwardly through the tower in an orderly manner of flow without substantial whirling or eddying. Thus, the particles of the sprayed liquid soap are carried downwardly in orderly positively controlled flow through the tower by the drying gas. The drying gas comes into contact with all of the sprayed particles of soap at substantially the same temperature, and all of the particles are positively propelled through the tower so that every particle is subj ected to a similar treatment by the drying gas for a substantially similar length of time. As here shown, the heated treating gas supplied to the tower 1 through duct 9 consists of products of combustion from the oil burning furnace 11 diluted and reduced to the proper temperature by air admitted to the system through the damper controlled opening 18. Further dampers 19 and 20 are provided for facilitating operation and permitting ready regulation and control of air volumes and air temperatures. The * * * contents of the tower are continuously discharged through the * * * opening * * * at the bottom of the tower. * * *
“The individual component rounded particles of the present product are ordinarily hollow unitary bodies. Each particle is a dei ached unit consisting of a shell or wall of the dry soap material solidified into the characteristic rounded particle shape and enclosing within it a single void or hollow space. The unitary hollow particle structure is shown in * * * (the figure). This is in contrast to a spongy material consisting of granules or particles of sponge-like or honeycomb structure. In such products the component particles are usually of irregular fragmentary character and the interior of the particle is a mass of interlacing walls and pores rather than a single void. The thickness of the walls of the particles is controlled by the condi1 ions of the process and may he varied depending upon the characteristic desired in the finished product such as particle size, bulking weight, speed of solubility, etc. The practical limiting minimum thinness of the particle walls is determined by tlie wall strength which is required to prevent the particles from crushing or breaking under the conditions normally encouritered in bulking of the product in bins, handling it through conveyors and filling machines, and shipping it for use. The particles of the present product are made sufficiently stable so that they will withstand such normal handling and shipping conditions without breaking down. This hollow unitary particle structure is important in making the product quickly and completely soluble and at the same time providing a product of substantial particle size which is free from dust, stable, and free-flowing.
“Soap products made by spraying molten soap as heretofore proposed are normally of shredded and fragmentary particle form. The novel structure properties of the present product just described are the result of certain particular process conditions. To obtain from the usual molten soap the characteristic rounded particle formation and to produce a product substantially free from excessively 'elongated particles, shreds, and the like, it is necessary that the temperature of the soap as sprayed be controlled within a proper range. * * *
“Definite spaces or interstices betwreen the particles are clearly evident, and these spaces appear clean and free from any dust or fine powder. The product illustrated in Figures 2 and 3 (of the patent) is, as stated above, of an average particle size of about 0.75 mm. In this product substantially none of the particles are as large as 2 mm. in diameter; 100% of the product passes through a 10 mesh sieve in which the openings are 2 mm. square. Of this same product 85% to 90% passes a 20 mesh sieve (sieve openings 1 mm. square) while only 15% to 20% of the product passes a 40 mesh sieve (sieve openings 0.5 mm. square). Only about 5% to 8% of the product passes a 60 mesh sieve (sieve openings 0.3 mm. square), and only about 1 to 3% of the product passes a 100 mesh sieve (sieve openings 0.15 mm. square). The fact that no substantial part of the product is of sufficiently small particle size to pass a 100 mesh sieve shows that the product is practically entirely free of objectionable fine material or dust.” It is but fair at this point to set forth appellee’s defenses and its position in general.
It disputes and challenges many facts asserted by appellants in their historical statement; denies that it followed the teachings of Lamont; asserts itself to he the pioneer and always a leader in the art; insists that Lamont was but a novice who played with soap making for a few days and never learned more about the science and art of laundry soap making than a sciolist. We are required to pass on fact issues and scientific disputes involving matters wherein the parties are hopelessly in disagreement. Appellee also denies that it followed Lamont hut it claims its product and process are its own and the result of changes following experiment and that its soap and the process by which it is made is covered by its own patents Nos. 1,779,516 and 1,779,-517, dated Oct. 28, 1930.
The District Court found for appellee and made findings which adopt the contentions of appellee, on both validity and non-infringement. They are complete. Our failure to accept certain conclusions therein appearing is due to the fact that the evidence (physical exhibits) upon which they are based is all before us.
Below is set forth the substance of such findings, slightly abbreviated. The findings although somewhat long are helpful in stating and narrowing the issues.
The Issues. The issues in controversy-are more numerous than in the usual patent suit. The appellee asserts the patent is invalid for want of invention, and the determination of the force and validity of this contention necessitates a separate consideration of the product and the process claims. Appellee also challenges invention on the ground that Lamont was not the first inventor; in fact he was not the first or even a subsequent inventor. On this issue, purely one of fact, there is sharp controversy and each side is supported by persuasive argument. No finding of fact on this issue was made by the District Court. On the issue of infringement appellee contends that its soap does not respond to the product claims of the patent. It asserts that the soap particles are radically different in shape and uniformity as well as in other respects. It also insists (a) that its method of making soap differs from the steps described in the process claims; and (b) the methods followed in making its soap were but improvements of the process and steps by it followed in making its laundry soap for years prior to Lamont’s entry into the industry.
The logical disposition of the determinative questions calls first for a consideration and disposition of appellee’s challenge of Lamont’s inventorship. The precise question which is here raised may be stated thus: Was it not Holliday rather than Lamont who made the discovery, etc. set forth in the Lamont patent?
Both these gentlemen, Holliday and Lamont, were employed by the same company, the Industrial Waste Product Corporation (otherwise known as Industrial Spray Drying Co.), which was engaged in rendering laboratory services to industries of various kinds. Among its employees were three men of more than ordinary technical knowledge. They were Paul D. Zinzinia, Robert L. Holliday, and Dallas R. Lamont. Holliday had chemistry and engineering' training. Lamont had engineering training and acted as patent solicitor, being licensed to practice in the United States Patent Office. Both gentlemen were under agreement to transfer their discoveries and inventions and patent applications to their employer.
Undoubtedly Holliday was the first to make experiments with soap. Industrial Waste Products Corporation was embarrassed financially and most anxious to hit upon a product and to make a discovery which would enlarge its activities and balance its budget. Industrial Waste Products Corporation had in other fields engaged in what is known as spray drying.
Securing a kettle of soap from the manufacturer, Holliday began his experiments, working with kettle soap which in the raw material form was 30% water. Holliday applied heat before spraying the product..The results of his various experiments were written up in the form-of a report. Qther experiments were undertaken and other steps followed and additional reports were recorded. As a result of Holliday’s experimental work it was decided by him or his employer that he should apply for a patent. Lamont acted as his solicitor. Patent No. 1,621,506 covering “The manufacture of a finely divided dry soap product” was issued upon Holliday’s application which bore date of April 19, 1926. It was issued March 22, 1927. It is apparent that Mr. Holliday subsequently believed that he had secured too broad a patent and he filed a disclaimer. Thereafter Holliday left the employ and Lamont continued to make experiments in the soap field. As a result of what he learned from Holliday or from his own experiments, or both, the application for the patent in suit was by him filed, and very shortly thereafter the patent here in question was issued and by him assigned to his employer. Neither Holliday nor Lamont is financially interested in the outcome of this suit.
The controversy between Lamont and Holliday is sharp and unyielding. The burden of proof looms large as the determining factor of this issue. This burden rests upon Holliday. The presumptions favor Lamont.
Holliday made a written statement of his discoveries in 1927. He at that time applied for a patent and, under oath, he set forth his discoveries. Tested by the action of other inventors acting under similar circumstances and seeking patents to protect their discoveries, it is fair to assume that the full strength of the discovery would be set forth by the applicant. Why not? What he did not claim, he waived — he lost. If he claimed more than what he could prove himself to be the first to have discovered, the Patent Office would reject the excess as non-patentahle. Experience has demonstrated that the usual discoverer asserts more rather than less than he is entitled to. This is partly due to the fact that he does not know what others have invented or discovered.
In the instant case therefore, we must assume that Holliday set forth all his discoveries when he applied for his patent. Most significant therefore is the absence of a disclosure of the discovery which Lamont later asserted to be his.
However, this is not all. After the patent was issued to Holliday and he had read it and meditated over it, he concluded there was a mistake in the statement of his discoveries. He sought to correct the mistake appearing in specifications and claims. Here again Holliday had the opportunity to make claim to the discovery covered by Lamont’s patent, if omission existed in his original claims and specifications. Instead we find that Holliday corrects the original application by stating that he had been granted too broad a patent. In other words, his discovery had been too broadly stated, and he therefore sought to limit and restrict the patent previously issued to him by filing a disclaimer.
In the face of such a record it is hard to find that Holliday erred when he sought to narrow the statement of his discovery when he might have broadened it so as to include as his, something he did not suggest when he filed his original application, nor claim when he filed his corrected and amended application.
On the other hand, there was persuasive evidence produced at the trial which supported appellee’s argument. It seems that Holliday wrote a report of each of his experiments, when working for Industrial Spray Dryer Company. Likewise, the product which resulted from his experiments was placed in a tin can and marked by the report number. Sometime after the patent was issued and after the Industrial Spray Dryer Company had transferred the patent to Colgate-Palmolive, a receiver was appointed for the former company. Its assets were sold. Various cans containing the products which resulted from numerous experiments were considered valueless. Some of them had been transferred to a warehouse where they were left neglected for many years.
At the time of the trial one of these cans bearing the Idolliday experiment number was produced in court to prove that the soap therein found responded fully to the claims of the Lamont patent. In other words, appellee offered the product found in this can as soap such as is described in Lamont’s patent. It was offered as the product of the Holliday test.
It would serve no useful purpose to set forth in detail all the evidence in support of the positions taken by the contestants nor to elaborate the reasons for the conclusion which we have reached. It is apparent that the dispute is not one which can be determined with that absolute and mathematical certainty which marks the disposition of some fact issues. We confess the arguments on both sides are rather persuasive.
Our conclusion is in favor of Lamont. We find him to be the original inventor of the soap product and processes by him described in the patent in suit.
In view of this finding it will not be necessary to dispose of a legal question which is the subject of considerable judicial difference of opinion. We refer to the issuance of a patent to an employee of a company, entitled (by agreement) to the inventions and discoveries of its employees, where two employees work in the samé laboratory on the same subject matter and the employer in good faith selects one employee to file the patent application and the infringer asserts that the discovery was made by the other employee, whose discovery also belongs to the employer.
Respecting this question this court sometime ago said:
“If a corporation (incapable of being an applicant for a patent) should employ a score of experts in its laboratories to improve the processes and the products of the corporation, it should be of no concern even to the government * * * to prosecute an inquiry and-make a specific finding on the question whether the invention was single or joint and just what part each expert took in perfecting the improvements ; and surely a stranger, who is taking advantage of the disclosures in the patent, ought not to escape on the contention that the government made a proper grant but erroneously or wrongfully recognized the wrong person as applicant.” Bestwall Mfg. Co. v. United States Gypsum Co. (C.C.A.) 290 F. 798, 799. In conflict with this statement of the law see, United Chromium, Inc. v. General Motors Corporation et al. (C.C.A.) 85 F.(2d) 577.
As bearing upon the effect of the employee’s (who the infringer asserts made the discovery) failure to file the application, see, Mason v. Hepburn, 13 App.D.C. 86. See, also, Brydle v. Honigbaum (Cust. & Pat.App.) 54 F.(2d) 147, and cases there cited. For an interesting discussion of this question see Vol. 18, Journal of Patent Office Soc’y., pages 257, 339.
If an employer who owns the inventions of his employees and is entitled to the patents issued thereon may nevertheless have his patent invalidated at the instance of an infringer when he in good faith names one of two employees as the inventor and the other employee takes no steps to assert his patent rights as first discoverer, then legislation is needed to avoid such possibilities.
We appreciate that the legal question arising out of the ownership of inventions of two employees, who have agreed with the employer that the latter is entitled to their discoveries, is entirely separate from the fact issue which arises out of the controversy over who was the first inventor, Holliday or Lamont. This issue of fact we have met sqparely and our determination is in no way affected by the said l'egal question. Our conclusion that appellee did not overcome the burden of proof which on it rested necessarily carries with it, the disposition of the ultimate fact issue, namely, that the soap found in the can in the warehouse long after Industrial Waste Products Corporation had sold its assets and ceased to function was not the soap made by Holliday in his experimental run No. 142.
We are not seriously impressed by the prior art disclosed in spray drying milk, blood, sulphite liquor, etc. Neither was appellee impressed by this prior art when it applied for and secured patents Nos. 1,-779,516 and 1,779,517 (to Stevenson) issued October 28, 1930. When these later applications were filed, the so-called crowded art which appellee now argues excluded Lamont, was not so crowded but that the Lever (Stevenson) applications were presented and allowed. In other words, the art which appellee says should now exclude Lamont did not bar Lever although its patents were issued some years later. An examination of the Lever patents shows nothing if it does not show the result of Lamont’s teaching.
The practices disclosed in the so-called prior art were

Question: What is the general issue in the case?
A. criminal
B. civil rights
C. First Amendment
D. due process
E. privacy
F. labor relations
G. economic activity and regulation
H. miscellaneous
Answer:

Answer: G