Court Opinion

ID: 9468285
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:11:16.633696+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:48.378231
License: Public Domain

DUMBAULD, Senior District Judge,
concurring.
I concur with the disposition of this case by the majority opinion, although I should have been willing to affirm simpliciter and approve the District Court’s determination on the crucial issue of validity vel non of the patent, as well as with respect to the incidental issues of jurisdiction, entitlement to the date of foreign filing, adequacy of description and claim, and file-wrapper estoppel.
I believe that the District Court in substance did determine the issue of validity in accordance with the criteria of Graham v. John Deere, 383 U.S. 1, 17, 86 S.Ct. 684, 693, 15 L.Ed.2d 545 (1966), and that its references to synergism were merely a rhetorical recital of “synergistic aphorisms,” a ceremonial genuflection in recognition and reflection of the existence of language in opinions of this Court and the Supreme Court where the verbiage of synergism is used.1 The maxim utile per inutile non vitiatur might appropriately be applied here.
Moreover, I should have been content to continue the present ambiguous stance with respect to synergism described in note 17 of the majority opinion, rather than to stand up and be counted in the current synergism controversy.2
Perhaps the word synergism should be discarded (except for its original meaning with respect to the interaction of chemicals or drugs, and for its use as a fashionable fad in television commercials, and for its theological and scriptural overtones).3 But abandoning the verbal trappings and “rhetoric of synergism” must not cause courts to overlook the importance of the requirement of novelty and invention, long required by the patent statutes and the Constitution.
As pointed out in John Deere itself, Congress may not “enlarge the patent monopoly without regard to the innovation, advancement or social benefit gained thereby. Moreover, Congress may not authorize the issuance of patents whose effects are to remove existent knowledge from the public domain, or to restrict free access to materials already available. Innovation, advancement, and things which add to the sum of useful knowledge are inherent requisites in a patent system which by constitutional command must ‘promote the Progress of . . . useful Arts.’ This is the standard expressed in the Constitution and it may not be ignored.” 383 U.S. at 6, 86 S.Ct. at 688.
Similarly, this Court has said: “Thus, the courts, in determining obviousness in a combination patent, must undertake the tripartite Graham inquiry without losing sight of the necessity to determine whether the device performs its function in an innovative fashion.” 608 F.2d at 91.
It must never be forgotten that the power given to Congress by Art. I, sec. 8, cl. 8 of the Constitution is “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” [Italics supplied] The primary policy of the patent laws is to promote invention for the benefit of the public. The private gain enjoyed by the patentee is secondary; the “exclusive Right” conferred by the patent monopoly is merely the means of accomplishing the intended result of advancing the growth of science by adding to the sum of human *554knowledge. A patent can not be sustained which would withdraw or subtract from what is already known and practiced. Borden Co. v. Clearfield Cheese Co., 244 F.Supp. 366, 368 (W.D.Pa.1965). To fence in by a newly created monopoly elements previously available to the public (by aggregating them in a combination patent without any inventive innovation) would be contrary to public policy and fundamental principles of patent law.
To emphasize the importance of these constitutional aspects of our patent system, whether or not they are clothed in “the rhetoric of synergism,” it seemed proper to dwell upon them specifically in this concurring opinion when joining in the judgment of the Court.

. Sakraida v. Ag Pro, Inc., 425 U.S. 273, 281-83, 96 S.Ct. 1532, 1537-58, 47 L.Ed.2d 784 (1976); Anderson’s-Black Rock v. Pavement Salvage Co., 396 U.S. 57, 60-62, 90 S.Ct. 305, 307-308, 24 L.Ed.2d 258 (1969); Hadco Products Inc. v. Walter Kidde & Co., 462 F.2d 1265, 1269-70 (C.A. 3, 1972); Sims v. Mack Truck Corp., 608 F.2d 87, 89-93 (C.A. 3, 1979).

. The conflicting authorities are listed in note 18 of the majority opinion. See also Kathleen Marie Fenton, “Combination Patents and Synergism,” 37 Washington & Lee L.Rev. 1206 (1980).

. See Romans 8:28.