Court Opinion

ID: 9466055
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:04:21.759545+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:31.432371
License: Public Domain

PELL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
The majority opinion demonstrates that a federal judge with long experience in the patent law field had no particular difficulty in finding that the Foster patented invention was obvious in view of prior art. The record here, on the other hand, demonstrates that that ease of perception was not shared by some ten of the plaintiff’s competitors who imitated and were inspired by the plaintiff’s patented harrow. I fail to see why these competitors who were in the same business could not be characterized as being persons of ordinary skill in the relevant art. I regard the fact of imitation as developed in this case as being a strong indicia of nonobviousness sufficient, and when coupled with the presumption of validity, sufficient to require affirmance of the judgment of the district court. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
In the majority opinion the matter of imitations is swept under the rug along with commercial success and unexpected and beneficial results. Aspects such as these are characterized in numerous judicial opinions as “secondary considerations.” The majority opinion is breaking no new ground in adopting this characterization. It does appear to me that in relegating some of these aspects, which perhaps are secondary in time at least, the courts have minimized their probative value reflecting upon whether there is obviousness. I must concede that some of the trappings which have been judicially developed on the “secondary considerations” syndrome are probably so firmly entrenched that a realistic reevaluation can now only be forthcoming from the Supreme Court.
While I regard the matter of imitating a patented article by numerous competitors as being direct and positive evidence of nonobviousness, not to be relegated to a secondary consideration which only comes into play in close cases, I also recognize the breadth of language in the cases dealing with these so-called secondary considerations, including cases in this court in which I have either been the author of the opinion or a member of the panel which handed down the opinion. Panduit Corp. v. Burndy Corp., 517 F.2d 535, 541 (7th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 987, 96 S.Ct. 395, 46 L.Ed.2d 304; Republic Industries, Inc. v. Schlage Lock Co., 592 F.2d 963 (7th Cir. 1979).
The landmark case on the evaluation of obviousness under section 103 is, of course, Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 86 S.Ct. 684, 15 L.Ed.2d 545 (1966). After referring to the three conditions which must be satisfied, which standards are adverted to in the majority opinion, the Court states:
Against this background, the obviousness or nonobviousness of the subject matter is determined. Such secondary considerations as commercial success, long felt but unsolved needs, failure of others, etc., might be utilized to give light to the circumstances surrounding the origin of the subject matter sought to be patented. As indicia of obviousness or nonobviousness, these inquiries may have relevancy.
383 U.S. at 17-18, 86 S.Ct. at 694. I do not read Graham as stating that all secondary circumstances only have relevancy when the case is close as to obviousness. Further, the only reason that I can conceive that an *347inquiry might have relevancy for the purpose of throwing light on the circumstances surrounding the origin of the subject matter sought to be patented would be the reflective one of whether as a matter of law there was obviousness. If there was not this reflective aspect there should appear to be no relevancy. I must confess also to having difficulty in determining the precise meaning of “indicia.” I can only assume that this must refer to some probative evidentiary value even though, dependent upon its nature, it may be given little weight, particularly if the nexus of the so-called “secondary consideration” to the invention is weak. I would not construe Graham, however, as mandating a disregard of any pertinent probative evidence on the question of obviousness.
Other cases, indeed earlier cases, without referring to the aspects under consideration as secondary have dealt with the present issue. Thus in Jungersen v. Ostby & Barton Co., 335 U.S. 560, 567, 69 S.Ct. 269, 93 L.Ed. 235 (1949), the Court held that the fact that the patented process had enjoyed considerable commercial success did not render it valid. The Court then stated that it is true that in eases where the question of patentable invention is a close one, such success has weight in tipping the scales of judgment toward patentability. In the case before the Court, however, invention was plainly lacking and commercial success could not fill the void. In the case before this court I cannot agree with the majority opinion that invention is plainly lacking. Also I do not concede that all of the so-called secondary considerations are of equal stature as to probative value. Commercial success, of course, may be achieved by diligent huckstering and in that event would have no bearing whatsoever on the question of obviousness.
In a case a year later, Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Supermarket Equipment Corp., 340 U.S. 147, 153, 71 S.Ct. 127, 95 L.Ed. 162 (1950), the lower courts had both leaned heavily on evidence that the device filled a long-felt want and had enjoyed commercial success. The Court then opined that commercial success without invention would not make patentability. The Court did not expressly deal with “long-felt want” but I think a proper reading of the opinion would indicate that where there was nothing, as was true in that case, except combining well known elements in the prior art obviousness must be found to exist even though there was long-felt want. Unfortunately, the Court ignored the fact that patentable inventions have been properly upheld which combined old elements in the prior art where the combining would not have been obvious to those skilled in the art.
Again, in Anderson’s-Black Rock v. Pavement Salvage Co. Inc., 396 U.S. 57, 61, 90 S.Ct. 305, 24 L.Ed.2d 258 (1969), the Court reiterated that matters such as long-felt want and commercial success will not make patentability “without invention,” citing Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co, supra.
In this dissent I will leave aside any reliance on commercial success, although that was ample in the present case, and long-felt need, even though with regard to this latter aspect I confess difficulty in not giving more significance than recent cases in this court and other courts have to the evidence of long-felt and unsolved want throughout an industry having skill in the art which for long times has been unable to solve a problem. I have the difficulty of discerning how something could be obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art if in the industry where those people labor the want was felt and those people could not solve it. In any event my reliance here is on the matter of imitation as to which I cannot find that the Supreme Court has dealt expressly, although in the much earlier case of Diamond Rubber Co. v. Consolidated Rubber Tire Co., 220 U.S. 428, 441, 31 S.Ct. 444, 55 L.Ed. 527 (1911), the Court did remark on the fact that prior art was crowded with numerous prototypes and predecessors but yet while giving the tribute of praise to the prior art, the competitor gave the patented tire, “the tribute of its imitation as others have done.”
*348In two cases at least in this court the importance of imitation by competitors has been found to be significant. In Ekstrom-Carlson & Co. v. Onsrud Machine Works, 298 F.2d 765, 770 (7th Cir. 1962), cert. denied, 369 U.S. 886, 82 S.Ct. 1160, 8 L.Ed.2d 287, this court, after referring to the well established rule of law that when a novel combination of elements whether all new, or all old, or partly new and partly old, so cooperate as to produce a new and useful result or a substantial increase in efficiency such combination is patentable, stated:
When we add to the foregoing rule on combinations the fact that the disclosures of the patent in suit first solved the long existing problem facing the aircraft industry, the acceptance of the patented device by the industry and defendant’s imitation of plaintiff’s machine, the defense of obviousness must fall. (Emphasis added).
Also, in Welsh Co. v. Chernivsky, 342 F.2d 586, 591 (7th Cir. 1965), cert. denied, 382 U.S. 842, 86 S.Ct. 68, 15 L.Ed.2d 83, this court agreed with the district court’s conclusion that the commercial success achieved by the patented object with only modest promotion and the fact that still another competitor had copied it in virtually every detail, while not sufficient of itself to establish the validity of the patent, did support the inference that the device was unobvious and filled a need.
The principal error, as I regard it in the majority opinion in the present case, is that the court declines to give any weight whatsoever to the aspect of imitation. The district court in its findings of fact expressly found the fact that Chromalloy and another competitor imitated and were inspired by plaintiff’s patented harrow and the fact that other competitors followed in those same footsteps manifests that the claimed invention would not have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to which the subject matter of the patent pertains. The fact before we reach the legal question of obviousness that there was imitation not only by Chromalloy but by numerous other competitors is not challenged as being erroneous. Looking particularly at the Chromalloy situation, that company heard about the plaintiff’s harrow from some of its salesmen in the field, and then conducted an extensive poll of its salesmen. From the poll and volunteered remarks of its salesmen Chromalloy heard opinions that plaintiff’s harrow “was the machine of the future” and that Chromalloy should “either procure one or build one.” Shortly after the poll Chromalloy personnel visited plaintiff, took photographs of plaintiff’s harrow, sketched it, measured its components and recorded the measurements on the sketch. The photographs and sketches were in the possession of Chromalloy’s engineering department when the drawings for the Chromalloy harrow were made, and the district court found that that harrow incorporated the invention of the Foster patent.
In the few cases dealing with the matter of imitation as bearing on obviousness there apparently was one or two at the most who had copied the patented invention. Here at least nine other competitors followed in the plaintiff’s footsteps.
In sum, I fail to see how we can determine that a case is not a close one or that an invention is clearly obvious without considering what I regard as the most relevant evidence in the case. I think it is time that the courts relook at the question of relegating perhaps the most direct and positive evidence of nonobviousness to second class status.1

. With regard to the issue raised by the counterclaim of invalidity under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) (“on sale” bar) I agree with the district court’s finding that there was no public use.