Opinion ID: 427227
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Advance Plate

Text: 10 After issuance of his patent, Fromson's invention enjoyed extensive commercial success and was the subject of licensing agreements with several companies. Fromson sued Advance Offset Plate, Inc. (Advance), charging it with infringement and contributory infringement of product claims 1, 4, 6 and 7, and process claims 12 and 16. He also sued three Advance customers for direct infringement in actions consolidated with that against Advance and now consolidated on appeal. We assume for purposes of this appeal that the claims at issue in those three cases are the same as those asserted against Advance. 11 It is undisputed that Advance manufactured and sold wipe-on plates comprising an anodized aluminum sheet that had been treated with an aqueous solution of sodium silicate, and that its customers applied a diazo coating to those plates. Because the claims include the application of a diazo coating or other light sensitive layer and because Advance's customers, not Advance, applied the diazo coating, Advance cannot be liable for direct infringement with respect to those plates but could be liable for contributory infringement. It is also undisputed that Advance, not its customers, applied the diazo resin to certain presensitized plates. For those presensitized plates, Advance could be liable for direct infringement. 12 Though preparation of the Advance plate involves treatment of anodized aluminum with an aqueous solution of alkali metal silicate to yield a water-insoluble, hydrophilic layer, as set forth in the claims, Advance and its customers deny infringement on the sole ground that there is no reaction between the aluminum oxide and sodium silicate. It is undisputed that Advance and its customers do what the claims say, i.e., apply a water solution of an alkali metal silicate to an oxide coated aluminum sheet to produce a layer, but it is argued that the layer does not result from a reaction as we are asked by Advance to define that term. 13 During oral argument on appeal, Advance suggested that its process involves different conditions (e.g., temperature, time) than the Fromson process, an argument neither raised in the brief nor addressed by the district court. Though the argument cannot therefore be considered here, we caution that the asserted claims contain no temperature or time limitations, and that no basis appears on this record for limiting the claimed inventions to preferred embodiments or specific examples in the specification. See, Smith v. Snow, 294 U.S. 1, 11, 55 S.Ct. 279, 283, 79 L.Ed. 721 (1935).