Court Opinion

ID: 9638336
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:41:21.927105+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:33:15.539940
License: Public Domain

' WOODBURY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
In my view the decisive question on this appeal is the enforceability of a licensing agreement requiring the licensee to pay royalties even though in fact he does not make any use whatsoever of any invention embodied in a patent owned by the licensor. Such agreements as I see it necessarily have the effect of expanding a patent beyond -the legitimate confines of the monopoly granted therein, and for many years the Supreme Court, because of the public interest dominant in the patent system, has held licensing agreements having that' effect unenforceable in spite of the business convenience or even necessities of the parties. Morton Salt Co. v. Suppiger Co., 314 U.S. 488, 492, 62 S.Ct. 402, 86 L.Ed. 363; B. B. Chemical Co. v. Ellis, 314 U.S. 495, 498, 62 S.Ct. 406, 86 L.Ed. 367; Mercoid Corp. v. Mid-Continent Co., 320 U.S. 661, 665 et seq., 64 S.Ct. 268, 88 L.Ed. 376, and cases cited. Therefore, by painty of reasoning with the above cases I would hold the licensing agreement here in suit unenforceable.