Court Opinion

ID: 9643958
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:44:54.633759+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:06.267968
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing
PER CURIAM.
The defendant has applied for a rehearing on the ground that the patentees were employed by the government and “paid for the specific work of making the thing patented.”
It does not appear that the plaintiff’s title to the patent in question was put in issue by the pleadings or at the trial, but, on the other hand, the defendant entered into a stipulation wherein it was provided that it might “be taken as established and duly proved by competent evidence” that “the plaintiff, Max Yablick, is the owner of the letters patent of the United States No. 1,559,980, issued November 3, 1925.” It further appears that the government recognized the title of the plaintiff to the patent in that it accepted a license under the patent from the plaintiff.
The general rule of law is that, “if one is employed to devise or perfect an instrument or a means for accomplishing a prescribed result, he cannot, after successfully accomplishing the work for which he was employed, plead title thereto as against his employer. That which he has been employed and paid to accomplish becomes, when accomplished, the property of his employer.” “There is no difference between the government and any other employer in this respect.” Solomons v. United States, 137 U. S. 342, 346, 11 S. Ct. 88, 34 L. Ed. 667; Standard Parts Company v. Peck, 264 U. S. 52, 44 S. Ct. 239, 68 L. Ed. 560, 32 A. L. R. 1033.
The Act of March 3, 1883, provides that the Commissioner of Patents may grant any officer of the government, except officers and employees of the Patent Office, a patent for any invention, when such invention is used or to be used in the public service, without the payment of any fee, provided the applicant in his application stipulates that the invention described therein, if patented, may be used by the government or any of its officers *889or employees in the prosecution of work for the government, or by any other person in the United States, without the payment to him of any royalty thereon. This stipulation must not only be included in the application, but also in the patent when issued. 22 Stat. 625 (35 USCA § 45; Comp. St. § 9441). There is no evidence that the patent was issued without any fee, and it does not contain the required stipulation. Neither was the patent dedicated to the public. Hence the patent does not seem to have been applied for and issued under the above provisions of the statute, and the defendant did not acquire any rights therein as a member of the public.
The issuance of a license to the government presupposes title in the plaintiff, and not in the government. Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company v. Arrott (C. C. A.) 135 F. 750. The patent was issued to the plaintiff, and he holds the full legal title, which must be recognized in a court of equity until superior equities are shown and this the defendant has failed to do.
Whatever the equities between the government and the plaintiff are, they do not constitute a defense to infringement by a third party. The government alone can avail itself of the employment of plaintiff when the invention was discovered. In other words, the rights, whatever they may be, which the government may have in the invention by reason of the inventor’s employment, are not available to the defendant. McMichael v. Ruth (C. C. A.) 128 F. 706; Wesson v. Galef (D. C.) 286 F. 621; Hazeltine Corporation v. Electric Service Engineering Corporation (D. C.) 18 F.(2d) 662.
The petitioner has not shown that it is entitled to the relief sought, and therefore a rehearing is denied.