Court Opinion

ID: 9460562
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:54:19.371592+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:40.926918
License: Public Domain

McCREE, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I concur in the majority opinion except for its conclusion that the district court’s finding of “equivalence” was clearly erroneous.
The district court held that Wright nail plates with small central holes for fixation pins were infringing because they were equivalent to the patented device’s “central bore and large fixation nail.” A finding of equivalence is a factual determination, Graver Tank & Manufacturing Co., Inc. v. Linde Air Products Co., 339 U.S. 605, 608, 70 S.Ct. 854, 94 L.Ed. 1097 (1950), and in Zenith Corporation v. Hazeltine, 395 U.S. 100, 89 S.Ct. 1562, 23 L.Ed.2d 129 (1969), also a patent case, the Supreme Court stated the proper standard for reviewing a challenged finding of fact to be:
In applying the clearly erroneous standard to the findings of a district court sitting without a jury, appellate courts must constantly have in mind that their function is not to decide factual issues de novo. The authority of an appellate court, when reviewing the findings of a judge as well as those of a jury, is circumscribed by the deference it must give to decisions of the trier of the fact, who is usually in a superior position to appraise and weigh the evidence. The question for the appellate court under Rule 52(a) *56is not whether it would have made the findings the trial court did, but whether “on the entire evidence [it] is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948). See also United States v. National Assn. of Real Estate Boards, 339 U.S. 485, 495-496, 70 S.Ct. 711, 94 L.Ed. 1007 (1950); Commissioner [of Internal Revenue] v. Duberstein, 363 U.S. 278, 289-291, 80 S.Ct. 1190, 4 L.Ed.2d 1218 (1960). 395 U.S. at 123, 89 S. Ct. at 1576.
Here, the district court expressly found that “[t]he effect of Dr. Deyerle’s testimony is to establish a medical or therapeutic interchangeability of various nails and pins to accomplish the same essential purpose through the differing devices here in controversy.” Although the majority opinion concedes that the evidence established that nails and pins perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way, nevertheless, it concludes that there was “no evidence showing that substantially the same result would be achieved by substituting a pin or pins for the nail.” Because of its determination that there is no evidence that the same result would be achieved by substituting pins, it holds that the finding of equivalence was clearly erroneous.
I disagree. Dr. Deyerle testified concerning the meaning of the term “fixation nail” in the patent claim:
It meant a rod of varying stiffness, ‘ of varying shape, some triflanged, some with rolled-on threads, some with cut-in threads, the varying sizes, and a nail or pin, the words are practically interchangeable, to me, and to the orthopedic profession, and people I had contact with and people I was teaching with, and to my opinion as an orthopedist as a whole, this is their interpretation. It is almost interchangeable with the word “pin” and it encompassed many things, even the Lorenzo screw, the others that have been mentioned, it had no specific limiting factors by usage. One doctor who used nothing, let’s say, but Moore pins, where he said he was going to pin a hip, to him he meant he was going to use “Moore pins”, that was the natural thing to do.
Another that used Smith-Petersen nail, he may use Smith-Petersen nail, the word “pin” or “nail” don’t have too much limited factors in terms of the orthopedist’s thought about it.
In my own thought, I think a little bit more of a nail as something that is pounded, would, like you [171] hammer a tack or a nail. This is just my feeling. This is the way I feel about it. I think a pin may be pounded, but more often is twisted in, drilled in, sometimes even pins are tapped in, even very small ones. So there are not many limiting factors, and it does cover a tremendous area.
The majority opinion considers this testimony but apparently finds it irrelevant because it was addressed to the issue of literal infringement. Although Dr. Deyerle did not testify directly that the challenged devices were “substantially the same” therapeutically as his patented device, the trial court could reasonably draw that inference from his testimony in the context in which it was given. In Zenith Corporation, for example, the Supreme Court concluded that the “evidence, although by no means conclusive, was sufficient to sustain the inference that Zenith had in fact been injured . . . .” 395 U.S. at 114, 89 S.Ct. at 1571. Under the test for equivalence established in Graver Tank, the district court was required to find only that the devices produced substantially the same, not the identical, result. I conclude the evidence is sufficient to “sustain the inference” that the use of a central nail or central pins would produce substantially the same result. Because I am not left with a “definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed,” Zenith Corporation, supra at 123, 89 S.Ct. *57at 1576, quoting United States v. Gypsum Company, 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S. Ct. 525, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948), I would affirm the trial court in all respects.