Opinion ID: 279293
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Work of Myers and Bates

Text: 30 The district court also found that the previous work of two men, Clarence Myers and D. W. Bates, each constituted anticipation, as follows: 31 '22. The 1942 and 1945 Union Carbide publications were based upon work performed by Mr. Clayton Myers, a Union Carbide engineer, who between 1939 and 1944, worked with others at Union Carbide in the development and introduction of rigid vinyl plastic compositions. The stress-whitening effect in these plastics was well known to these workers, although, prior to Myers' work, it had generally been treated as a defect of the material. The World War II-induced shortage of metals caused interest on the part of Union Carbide customers to cold embossing of vinyl plastics. The evaluative work done by Myers for and with customers as to cold embossing showed whitened lettering in the embossed areas. Myers, during this period, made nameplates and signs of rigid vinyl plastic sheets on which whitened lettering contrasting with the background had been produced by cold embossing. He provided such embossed nameplates and signs to customers of Union Carbide and also furnished them with rigid vinyl plastics suitable for such embossing. Myers cold-embossed copolymers of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate containing various reinforcing fillers including aluminum hydrate. 32 '23. The testimony of Myers, together with contemporaneous documents and materials produced by him, convincingly show that prior to 1944 he demonstrated the practical efficacy and utility of cold-embossing rigid plastic sheets, including the plastics described in the Souza patents, to produce whitened lettering that contrasted with the background color of the sheet. Myers produced the practical result which showed that the stress-whitening effect of rigid vinyl plastics worked to provide color-contrasting lettering, and publicized the results of this work in Union Carbide publications to encourage sales of Union Carbide's rigid vinyl plastic sheets. Myers' work was an anticipation of the claimed subject matter of the Souza-- '625 and Souza-- '822 patents. 33 '24. In 1955, Mr. Darwin Bates of Addressograph-Multigraph Corporation, wishing to substitute plastic for metal in Addressograph credit plates, cold-embossed with existing Addressograph cold embossing equipment the same Union Carbide vinyl plastic which Souza cold-embossed some two years later. Bates made many samples of such cards, which demonstrated that cold embossing of this plastic produced whitened lettering which contrasted with the background color of the plastic. Bates thereby practiced the method claimed in the Souza-- '625 patent to make the plastic article claimed in the Souza-- '822 patent. Representatives of Addressograph during 1955 displayed such cold-embossed credit cards having color-contrasting lettering to representatives of several different companies and disseminated to them, on an unrestricted basis, information concerning the cards and the method of making them in an attempt to commercially exploit them. The well-documented deposition testimony of Bates and Mr. Harold Hutchings, then another Addressograph employee, shows that in 1955 Bates demonstrated the practical utility of coldembossing rigid plastic sheets to produce cards having whitened lettering that contrasted in color with the back-ground color of the sheet. Although no commercial sales were made of these cards by Addressograph, the embossed plastic cards made by Bates were offered for sale and embodied the very substance of the method claimed in the Souza-- '625 patent and the articles claimed in the Souza-- '822 patent, and constituted an anticipation thereof.' C.T. 80-82, 147-49. 34 We neither affirm nor reject the district court's conclusions as to anticipation by Myers and Bates. Myers' work was closely related to the Union Carbide publications referred to above, and we need not discuss that work as a separate instance of anticipation. With regard to Bates' work, we think the record supports the conclusion that stress-whitened credit cards were offered for sale by Addressograph to the Richfield Oil Corporation more than one year prior to Souza's patent applications. Dymo admits that sample credit cards were made, and Hutchings testified that he and an Addressograph sales representative met several times with Richfield personnel regarding the possible sale to Richfield of such cards. R.T. 644-48. Furthermore, Bates himself deposed explicitly that the cards were offered for sale. R.T. 619-20. See also R.T. 582-583, 606, 649-659. A strong case is thus made for the proposition that the requirements of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(1964) were not met with respect to the method and label patents. See Corona Cord Tire Co. v. Dovan Chem. Corp., 276 U.S. 358, 384-385, 48 S.Ct. 380, 72 L.Ed. 610 (1928); Monroe Auto Equipment Co. v. Heckethorn Mfg. & Supply Co., 332 F.2d 406, 416 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 379 U.S. 888, 85 S.Ct. 160, 13 L.Ed.2d 93 (1964); Philco Corp. v. Admiral Corp., 199 F.Supp. 797, 815-818 (D.Del.1961). Dymo argues, however, that Bates' work represents merely a series of abandoned experiments. And although that contention seems to us doubtful in view of the factual findings and authorities referred to above, it does draw at least some support from the Second Circuit's decision in Lyon v. Bausch & Lomb Optical Co., 224 F.2d 530, modified on rehearing, 106 U.S.P.Q. 240, cert. denied, 350 U.S. 911, 76 S.Ct. 193, 100 L.Ed. 799 (1955) (L. Hand, J.), which held that there had been an 'abandonment' (negating anticipatory sales and use) in somewhat similar circumstances. In view of the existence of several alternative grounds for affirming the district court's decision, therefore, we decline to pass upon the question of anticipation by Bates.