Court Opinion

ID: 9703778
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:07:30.257618+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:51.621902
License: Public Domain

On Petition for Rehearing.
This action is before the Court at this time on a petition for rehearing filed herein by the defendant. The petition alleges that the decision of the Court on the defendant’s motion for summary judgment was “predicated upon the presumption of fraud on the part of the defendant.” A reading of the opinion filed herein on December 6, 1943, will disclose that the allegation is clearly erroneous.
The motion for summary judgment was based entirely on the “Tenth Defense”, in which the defendant urged, as a defense to the action, the failure of the plaintiff to apply for a patent, and the public use of the invention for a period of two years after its alleged disclosure. We held, and we repeat, that the “public use of the invention for a period of two years may, under the provisions of the statute, R.S. § 4886, 35 U.S.C.A. § 31, effectively bar an application for a patent, but this statutory prohibition is no defense to the present action.” This determination was not predicated upon a “presumption of fraud”, as alleged in the present petition.
The present petition presents, as did the defendant’s brief in support of the motion for summary judgment, issues of law and fact which can be determined only after a full hearing of the case on the merits. These issues cannot be decided on affidavit, as the defendant seems to think. The decision of the Court on the motion for summary judgment was intentionally confined to the only issue of law then presented.
The petition for rehearing is denied.