Court Opinion

ID: 9443473
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:21:42.848669+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:29.997310
License: Public Domain

MURRAH, Circuit Judge
(concurring specially).
In the former case, it was my view that the unexpired patents were valid but uninfringed; that separate and apart from the patent monopoly, the leasing agreement had the legal effect of prohibiting retipping of the Hughes bits. The question remained, in my mind, whether the agreement, when considered outside the patent monopoly and construed to prevent retipping, could be squared with the anti-trust laws. Being of the view that this question was open and undecided in the trial court, I thought the case should be remanded for the determination of that issue in the first instance.
I interpreted the majority opinion in the former case to sustain the validity of the leasing agreement as a condition upon the right of use of the patented bits. Thus construed, it was my view that the injunction was limited to the protection of the patent monopoly. Now, however, my brethren construe the opinion to sustain the validity of the leasing agreement as a proper exercise of Hughes’ property rights in its bits apart from the patent monopoly. The plain implication of this holding is to remove any question of the validity of the leasing agreement under the anti-trust laws, and it forecloses the question which I had thought was at large in the lawsuit. I must accede to the majority’s interpretation of what it has written.