Court Opinion

ID: 9455140
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:12:22.392437+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:28.444263
License: Public Domain

SWYGERT, Circuit Judge.
I respectfully dissent. In Graver Tank & Mfg. Co. v. Linde Air Products Co., 336 U.S. 271, 274-275, 69 S.Ct. 535, 537-538, 93 L.Ed. 672 (1949), the Supreme Court emphasized the deference that appellate courts should give to findings made by trial courts in patent cases when there is a conflict in the evidence and the trial court has had the benefit of scientific demonstrations. There the Court said:
To no type of case is this last clause [Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a)] more ap*950propriately applicable than to the one before us, where the evidence is largely the testimony of experts as to which a trial court may be enlightened by scientific demonstrations.
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The rule requires that an appellate court make allowance for the advantages possessed by the trial court in appraising the significance of conflicting testimony and reverse only “clearly erroneous” findings.
The trial in the instant case was typical of those referred to by the Supreme Court. The trial lasted more than two and one-half weeks. The transcript of the record is in excess of 1,700 pages and contains more than 150 exhibits. As a preface to his memorandum opinion,1 which included one hundred twenty-five findings of fact, the judge wrote:
The testimony having been concerned with technical matters and in many instances conflicting, the following findings are a result of careful consideration of the most credible evidence, both testimonial and documentary, and an evaluation of the courtroom demonstrations and physical exhibits. The findings are in some measure predicated upon an observation of the witnesses and a consideration of their demeanor, competency, and credibility and many of the findings contained herein are adopted from those submitted by the respective parties.
After considering the findings in light of the evidence, I am unable to say that any of the essential findings supporting the validity of the patent and its infringement are clearly erroneous.
The patent in question was granted on the basis of a continuation-in-part application, filed April 23, 1962, which grew out of an original or parent application filed January 20, 1960. Since General Foods’ patented product was placed on the market in 1959, the question arises whether the patent is invalid by reason of 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) which provides that a patent shall not be issued if the invention was in public use or on sale more than a year prior to the date of the application for the patent. Thus the validity of General Foods’ patent depends upon whether General Foods is entitled to the filing date of the parent application. Both parties agree that the earlier filing date is applicable only if the claims in the continuation-in-part application are supported by the parent application. Chicago & Northwestern Ry. Co. v. Sayles, 97 U.S. 554, 563-564, 24 L.Ed. 1053 (1878); Application of Moreton, 312 F.2d 954, 50 CCPA 948 (1963); Indiana General Corp. v. Lockheed Aircraft Corp., 249 F.Supp. 809 (S.D.Cal.1966), rev’d on other grounds, 408 F.2d 294 (9th Cir. 1968).
The majority reverses solely on the ground that the claims of the patent are not supported by the parent application. This question was carefully examined by the trial court and a number of findings were made with respect to it. One of the key findings reads:
The court finds that the language of the patent claiming “retardation of re-hydration” is supported by the claims of the parent application. The parent discloses the concept of a base kib which will rapidly absorb water, yet which is characterized by “retention of particle identity during and after hydration, so that the kib does not become mushy or doughy.” It is quite clear from a reading of the parent that its objective was to retain the integrity of the particles so as to eliminate mushiness, which inherently implies that the kib retards hydration.
In my opinion a comparison of the parent application with the patent claims supports the judge’s observation and also his further statement that “in the context of the language appearing in the parent * * * the parent application intended to teach the concept of retarded hydration even though not using those *951words to do so.” This conclusion was based in large part on a further finding: “We are willing to credit the testimony of plaintiff’s very able expert, Mr. Harris, that a man skilled in the art would learn the objective of retardation of hydration from the claims of the parent.” 2 As the Supreme Court held in the Graver Tank Co. case, 336 U.S. 271, 69 S.Ct. 535, it is the prerogative of the district court and not of this court to assess the relative credibility of witnesses.
As an additional argument, Perk, referring to claim 1 as typical of the patent claims, says that the claim is specifically limited to the inclusion of a “dry gravy-forming and thickening material [which in a coating of is capable of] retarding hydration of the expanded porous structure of the product.” Perk maintains that the parent application neither describes nor identifies this critical characteristic. The district court adequately answered this argument. Although the parent application does not contain the word “thickener,” the court found that the application “does identify certain ‘gums’ and names certain materials which it states are gravy formers. Those materials with the exception of corn flower all happen to be thickeners.” The court said :
However, in conjunction with the function of retardation of rehydration, found to be inherent in the language of the parent, the naming of specific materials which are thickeners would make clear to one skilled in the art their function to retard rehydration so as to preserve particle integrity. Accordingly, the Court thinks that the concept of thickening is taught and supported in the language of the parent.
Such a description is clearly sufficient to support the claims of the continuation-in-part application. Indiana General Corp. v. Lockheed Aircraft Corp., 408 F.2d 294 (9th Cir. 1968).
Although other issues pertaining to patentability and infringement are raised in this appeal, I believe that they are adequately treated in the trial court’s opinion and were correctly determined. For that reason it would serve no useful purpose to discuss them in this dissent.

. The district court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law appear in 157 U.S.P.Q. 14 (1968).

. The pertinent testimony of witness Benjamin H. Harris reads : •
Q. From your study of the application which led to the patent in suit, Defendant’s Exhibit 2, and the parent case, Defendant’s Exhibit 3, would you state whether or not there is any essential difference between those two applications and the description of the process for making the product involved in this action?
A. I see no essential difference, and I am of the firm conviction that anyone skilled in the art operating under the teaching of the parent application, can come out with a process and product no different than if he were operating under the teaching of the continuation-in-part application.
Q. When you make that statement, do you have in mind the fact that in one instance there might be the use of the particular words “controlled hydration” or “high water tolerance,” and another instance there might be a somewhat different type of word used for the idea?
A. As regards the use of words, my opinion is that what is significant is what the disclosure tells one skilled in the art to do, and how to do it. Words are only a means to an end. The end is, and the question can properly apply generally and here, as between the parent application and the continuation part application. “What does the parent application teach one skilled in the art to do, and how to do it. On the other hand, what does the continuation in part teach one skilled in the art and how to do it.”
Now, my position is — I feel fully justified in taking the position without reservation — that anyone knowing nothing about, being totally uninformed, having never seen the continuation in part application, working solely with the teaching of the parent application, as I stated before, would come out with a method and would come out with a product no different than with a full knowledge of the teaching in the continuation in part application.