Court Opinion

ID: 9449115
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:57:23.930986+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:42.581347
License: Public Domain

WATERMAN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
As I read the opinion of the court, appellant is required to do no more than redraft minor language in its complaint to satisfy my colleagues that a justiciable controversy exists. Although dismissal without prejudice permits appellant to commence a new action I believe that the district court should have proceeded to the merits upon the present complaint.
My brothers appear to concede, or are prepared to assume, that appellant has, with but one omission, set forth all that is required to establish a justiciable controversy under the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2201. They do not contend that Superba’s reply to appellant’s letter is insufficient as an assertion of right under the patent. The precise nature of the allegedly infringing object appellant proposes to manufacture is established by the sample already produced for Superba’s inspection.
The majority recognizes that in the necktie industry it may well be that designing a sample necktie is the equivalent of more elaborate preparatory steps which, in other cases, have been found sufficient to establish an immediate ability to engage in allegedly infringing conduct. The only fatal defect that the majority finds in Wembley’s complaint is what appellant says or fails to say about its immediate intention to manufacture.
The complaint may well be inartfully drafted in this respect. It is clearly stated that Wembley “proposes” to manufacture the dacron tie provided it is found not to infringe Superba’s patent. Appellant has no apparent reason to misrepresent its intentions in this respect or to litigate the issue at substantial expense if no such intention exists. In light of our long-standing policy of liberality toward suits for declaratory judgment in the patent field, Dewey & Almy Chemical Co. v. American Anode, Inc., 137 F.2d 68 (3 Cir., 1943), cert. denied, 320 U.S. 761, 64 S.Ct. 70, 88 L.Ed. 454, I would accept Wembley’s statement of intention and reverse the judgment of dismissal without prejudice below.