Task: songer_typeiss

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Your task is to determine the general category of issues discussed in the opinion of the court. Choose among the following categories. Criminal and prisioner petitions- includes 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 or the validity of continued confinement. Civil - Government - these will include appeals from administrative agencies (e.g., OSHA,FDA), the decisions of administrative law judges, or the decisions of independent regulatory agencies (e.g., NLRB, FCC,SEC). The focus in administrative law is usually on procedural principles that apply to administrative agencies as they affect private interests, primarily through rulemaking and adjudication. Tort actions against the government, including petitions by prisoners which challenge the conditions of their confinement or which seek damages for torts committed by prion officials or by police fit in this category. In addition, this category will include suits over taxes and claims for benefits from government. Diversity of Citizenship - civil cases involving disputes between citizens of different states (remember that businesses have state citizenship). These cases will always involve the application of state or local law. If the case is centrally concerned with the application or interpretation of federal law then it is not a diversity case. Civil Disputes - Private - includes all civil cases that do not fit in any of the above categories. The opposing litigants will be individuals, businesses or groups.

PAGE, Circuit Judge.
The District Court found noninfringement of claims 2 and 4 of plaintiff’s (appellants) patent No. 1,-129,459. We will consider the broader claim 4: .
“4. In a cartridge fuse, the combination of a shell, and end cap fitting over each end of said shell, and a helically disposed venting passage cut in the exterior surface of said shell at each end thereof, whereby the gases formed by the blowing of the fuse will escape through said passages to the atmosphere.”
The sole reference to a “helically disposed venting passage” in the specification follows the statement of the pbjects and the description of the invention, and is as follows: “In order to allow the gases generated by a violent blowing of the fuse to gradually escape, I preferably employ, near each end of the shell 10, the helical venting passage 23, which causes the gases to become materially cooled before reaching the atmosphere.”
From 23 in Figure 2 is a line to a dot, among the cross-hatching and on the outer side of a longitudinal cross-section of the shell 10. This is the only reference to or description of any “helically disposed venting passage.” These claims were rejected on McCarthy, No. 745,969, dated December 1, 1903, in view of Sargent, No. 1,001,694, dated August 29,1911. After some further argument, the Patent Office allowed the claims. We do not determine the validity of the claims.
Plaintiff never made the device of the patent, but fastened the cap to the shell, or a-ferrule on the shell, by means of a shallow thread on the inside of the cap, which screwed into the slightly deeper thread on the shell, or ferrule. The evidence clearly establishes the manufacture and sale of many such renewable cartridge fuses by Gehrke more than two years prior to application for plaintiff’s patent, except that Gehrke got his vent by loose-fitting threads. More than two years before plaintiff’s patent was applied for, plaintiff and others manufactured and sold a similar cartridge fuse, in which there was more or less looseness of the threads — however, with no intent to provide a vent.
One of the main objects in making such cartridge fuses is that they may be readily assembled and disassembled without tools, merely by using the fingers, which requires a looseness in the threads. It is a matter of common knowledge that the joints between such threads cannot, practically or economically, be made either water or air tight, and, if so made, would not admit of finger adjustments. The evidence does not show that the threads in the cap and on the ferrule of defendant’s fuses were looser than necessary or usual in such construction to permit of finger adjustment.
We are of opinion that there was no infringement, and the decree is affirmed.

Question: What is the general category of issues discussed in the opinion of the court?
A. criminal and prisoner petitions
B. civil - government
C. diversity of citizenship
D. civil - private
E. other, not applicable
F. not ascertained
Answer:

Answer: B