Court Opinion

ID: 9479051
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:06:47.242876+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:47.705474
License: Public Domain

PAULINE NEWMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
It is not disputed that the installation and use of Cuno’s “adapter” and filter cartridge would be an infringement of the Everpure patent, unless both of these elements are within the exception of the principle of permissible repair. The filter cartridge may qualify, as Everpure concedes, in that it replaces the spent filter. But the “adapter” does not. Thus I respectfully dissent from the court’s decision.
The patented invention is a filter assembly for purifying water. The so-called “adapter” comprises a major portion of the claimed assembly, as is apparent from the claims. Claim 4 is typical (letters (a)-(m) added):
4. A filter assembly comprising:
(a) a head adapted to be fixedly mounted;
(b) fluid inlet and outlet ports formed in said head;
(c) first cam surfaces on said head;
(d) a clamping collar having second cam surfaces engageable with said first cam surfaces and cooperating therewith so that rotation of said collar in one direction causes axial movement of said collar from a clamping to an un-damped position and rotation in an opposite direction returns said collar to a clamping position;
(e) a pressure vessel having a filter element disposed therein;
(f) means for supporting said pressure vessel in said clamping collar;
(g) means associated with said pressure vessel defining fluid inlet and outlet openings to and from the filter element and arranged for communication with said fluid inlet and outlet ports in said head to permit fluid flow through the filter;
(h) said means associated with said pressure vessel comprising a closure member in sealed engagement with the end of said pressure vessel,
(i) said means for supporting said pressure vessel in said clamping collar includes
(j) a plurality of circumferentially spaced ledge surfaces formed on said clamping collar and
(k) a plurality of circumferentially spaced ridge surfaces on said pressure vessel engageable with said ledge surfaces,
(l) safety means for preventing fluid under pressure in the system in which the filter assembly is disposed from blowing said pressure vessel from said head in the event removal of the pressure vessel is attempted before shutting off the supply of fluid to the head,
(m) said safety means comprising cooperating stationary stop means on said head and stop means on said clamping *305collar defining a predetermined limit of rotation of said clamping collar when removal of said pressure vessel from the filter assembly is desired and further comprising said circumferentially spaced ledge surfaces on said clamping collar which in cooperation with said ridge surfaces on said pressure vessel are effective during initial disengagement of said pressure vessel from said head to prevent the pressure vessel being blown from said head.
The principal advantage of the claimed filter assembly is that the filter element can be replaced without turning off the water supply and without blowing the pressure vessel from the head. This is achieved by construction of the overall assembly in two parts: a fixed part and a separable part, whose elements interact to achieve, together, the purposes of the invention.
The fixed part, called the head, is permanently attached to the water line. Claim clauses (a)-(d) and portions of clauses (i)-(j) and (i)-(m) define elements of the head.
The separable part comprises the remaining claim elements: claim clauses (e)-(h) and cooperating components of clauses (i)(k) and (i)-(m). Included are not only the pressure vessel containing the filter element, clause (e), but also all the elements that are housed in the “adapter”: the conduits that coordinate with the fluid paths in the head, the support and closure members, the safety means, and the leak-proof attachment. The specification refers to this entire separable part as the “replaceable filter unit”, thereby distinguishing it from the fixed head. It is this entire unit the replacement of which the district court authorized as, simply, “repair”.
In the commercial Everpure filter assembly all the elements of the “replaceable filter unit” are housed together in a cartridge. Cuno provides all these elements, but in two units. One unit contains the filter in a pressurized container, claim clause (e). The other unit, the Cuno “adapter”, contains the elements of claim clauses (f)-(h) and the cooperating components of clauses (i)-(k) and (i )-(m). No part replaced by the Cuno “adapter” is worn out, exhausted, broken, or in need of repair.
As Cuno states the argument, because all these elements are sealed in the cartridge with the filter, as sold by Everpure, all are deemed spent when the filter is spent. Thus the district court held that Cuno’s entitlement to replace the spent filter necessarily means entitlement to replace everything in the Everpure cartridge.

Discussion

The doctrine of permissible “repair” authorizes the replacement of worn or broken parts, but only when such replacement does not amount to “reconstruction” of the patented invention. The principle was stated in Aro Manufacturing Co. v. Convertible Top Replacement Co., 365 U.S. 336, 345, 81 S.Ct. 599, 604, 5 L.Ed.2d 592, 128 USPQ 354, 359 (1961), that the law authorizing “repair” of a patented device relates to the “preserv[ation of] fitness to use so far as it may be affected by wear or breakage”, quoting Leeds & Catlin Co. v. Victor Talking Machine Co., 213 U.S. 325, 326, 29 S.Ct. 503, 503, 53 L.Ed. 816 (1909). The Court distinguished “reconstruction” as “a second creation of the patented entity”. Aro, 365 U.S. at 345-46, 81 S.Ct. at 604, 128 USPQ at 358.
There is no automatic right to replace unworn, unbroken parts of a patented structure simply because the unworn part is sold or used in attachment to a worn part. While there is no bright line between permissible repair and impermissible reconstruction, in this case the “adapter” is plainly in the category of reconstruction. The only question is whether such reconstruction must be tolerated because it accompanies replacement of the spent filter.
The district court appears simply to have redefined reconstruction as repair, then holding that repair is permissible. The court said that “the fact that it requires a particular cartridge configuration to mate it to the head does not alter the legal principle” of permissible repair. This conclusion ignores the controlling fact that the “adapter” is not merely a “configuration to *306mate it to the head”. It is not a simple plug. It is a material and complex part of the total claimed invention.
Guidance arises from decisions of this court reviewing whether particular facts support “repair” or “reconstruction”. See, e.g., Lummus Industries Inc. v. D.M. & E. Corp., 862 F.2d 267, 272, 8 USPQ2d 1983, 1987 (Fed.Cir.1988) (replacement of unpat-ented reel that is not worn is not repair but “a second creation of the patented entity”, quoting Aro, supra); Dana Corporation v. American Precision Co., 827 F.2d 755, 3 USPQ2d 1852 (Fed.Cir.1987) (it is permissible repair to replace defective or worn parts of clutches with used or new parts, where no more than four parts of the many-part clutches were new); Porter v. Farmers Supply Service, Inc., 790 F.2d 882, 229 USPQ 814 (Fed.Cir.1986) (replacement of worn-out unpatented disks of harvesters was permissible repair, the court referring to the relative costs of the disks ($79.50) and the harvester ($42,400)).
The district court may have been led into error by misapplication of its conclusion that because an “unpatented part of a combination patent may be appropriated by anyone, Special Equipment Co. v. Coe, 324 U.S. 370, 376, 65 S.Ct. 741, 744, 89 L.Ed. 1006 (1945)”, Cuno can freely provide any unpatented component of the combination. Special Equipment does not so hold. 35 U.S.C. § 271(c) specifically states the contrary.1 The district court’s reliance on Special Equipment suggests misunderstanding of the law of contributory infringement as well as the law of repair/reconstruction.
The panel majority relies on Payne v. Dickinson, 109 F.2d 52, 44 USPQ 181 (3rd Cir.1940), where the claimed combination was a hypodermic syringe and a needle sealed into a “hub” adapted to fit the syringe, and the court held that it was permissible repair to replace the worn or broken needle with its hub; and on Electric Auto-Lite Co. v. P. & D. Mfg. Co., 109 F.2d 566, 44 USPQ 377 (2d Cir.1940) wherein the court held that it was permissible repair to replace a breaker-arm instead of solely the worn contact points it contained, distinguishing an earlier, contrary case on the basis that it had now become cheaper to replace the breaker-arm than to replace the points. These cases support the proposition that Cuno is entitled to provide the filter in its pressurized canister, but they do not support Cuno’s additional provision of the entire structure of fluid conduits, safety elements, and other claimed elements.
The multiple elements contained in the “adapter” are neither worn nor broken, and do not require repair. Cuno’s argument that unless it provides these elements it can not provide the new filter is a recognition that it has reconstructed the total assembly. Such reconstruction is not authorized merely because Cuno finds it difficult, or impossible, to replace the filter in the pressurized canister.
The doctrine of permissible repair is a carefully evolved exception to the law of infringement. The integrity of the patent grant requires that permissible repair be limited to that which can be made without reconstruction. If the asserted repair also requires reconstruction, it can not be deemed to constitute an exception to the principles of infringement. The right to exclude others from practice of the patented invention is eviscerated if others are authorized to reconstruct a material portion thereof simply because the worn part of the patented structure is not readily repaired or replaced.
I would reverse the judgment of the district court.

. 35 U.S.C. § 271(c):
Whoever sells a component of a patented machine, manufacture, combination or composition, or a material or apparatus for use in practicing a patented process, constituting a material part of the invention, knowing the same to be especially made or especially adapted for use in an infringement of such patent, and not a staple article or commodity of commerce suitable for substantial nonin-fringing use, shall be liable as a contributory infringer.