Court Opinion

ID: 9451364
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:15:45.480043+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:41.766969
License: Public Domain

RICH, Judge.
This appeal is from the decision of the Board of Patent Interferences'awarding priority to appellee Olin, the senior party, in interference No. 91,447 between Krantz et al. application serial No. 657,-482, filed May 7, 1957, for “Pharmaceutical Agent,” and Olin application serial No. 37,035, filed June 20, 1960, for “Chemical Product,” a continuation of application serial No. 556,056, filed December 29, 1955.
The Krantz et al. application is assigned to Air Reduction Company, Inc., of New York. Pennsalt Chemicals Corporation, of Pennsylvania, is assignee of the Olin applications.
In declaring the interference the examiner accorded Olin the benefit of the filing date of his earlier application, thereby making him senior party.
The sole count, which originated as claim 15 of the Krantz et al. application and was suggested by the examiner to Olin for the purpose of contesting priority, reads:
A process which comprises reacting 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl p-toluene sulfonate with an alkali metal 2,2,2-trifluoroethanolate and obtaining 2,2,2,2',2/,2,~hexafluorodiethyl ether as a product therefrom.1
*1017In the proceedings below, the parties filed a stipulation of facts and stipulated testimony in lieu of taking testimony. They also filed briefs and were represented at final hearing.
Part of the board’s decision was that Olin, on the facts stipulated, did not have an actual reduction to practice and that he was not entitled to an award of priority on that basis. That issue is not before us because it was not raised on appeal by either party. With respect to it we wish it to be clearly understood that our decision herein is not to be taken as an approval of that holding or of the reasons given in the board’s opinion in support thereof.
The board’s award of priority to Olin was on the ground that he had a constructive reduction to practice of the process of the count as of the date of his parent application, December 29, 1955, prior to the filing date of Krantz et al., May 7, 1957, the board further holding that all of the proofs of Krantz et al. for an actual reduction to practice were subsequent to Olin’s effective filing date. Since Krantz et al. expressly approve the last-mentioned finding of the board, it is not before us and, again, it is to be understood that this decision is not to be taken as an approval of it or the reasons in support of it.
The issue on appeal is a narrow one. As Olin states it, it is simply whether he constructively reduced to practice by filing his parent application. Krantz et al. say that the decision of the board “is clear and correct in every material respect save one: — the Board erred in holding that the parent Olin case * * * is (was) a complete and allowable application and that Olin is entitled to the 1955 filing date of his said parent application, for a constructive reduction to practice of the count.”
Appellants’ attack on Olin’s applications is based on three main contentions: (1) that Olin intentionally included categorical disclosures or statements of utility for the compound produced by the claimed process and that these statements have been shown during the interference “to be in at least material part incorrect and misleading,” (2) that Olin excluded or omitted information known to him at the time of filing which has been shown “to be of great importance to the proper and safe practice of the claimed new process and of the disclosed uses of the new compound produced thereby,” and (3) that Olin has failed “to remove from the application the said misleading statements or to include or attempt to include therein the said omitted information.” As may be seen, point (3) is somewhat repetitive of points (1) and (2).
Appellants carefully point out that the issue, in their opinion, is whether under these circumstances the Olin parent application can properly be considered complete and allowable,2 and thus constitute a constructive reduction to practice of the process invention of the count.
Olin’s applications both say (bracketed numbers inserted):
The resulting new chemical compound of my invention, bis(2,2,2trifluoroethyl) ether, is a colorless liquid which vaporizes readily at ordinary temperatures and [1] has useful solvent properties. For example, it may be used to prepare pastes or dispersions of high molecular weight fluorine compounds such as fluorocarbon waxes. [2] It also may be used to soften or solu-bilize polymeric materials, e. g., synthetic fibers. [3] It is chemically reactive and may be used in the preparation of other flourinated compounds.
This passage, particularly the three numbered portions, constitutes all of the positive disclosure upon which appellants’ objections are based.
*1018As to disclosure [1], appellants contend the evidence shows that Olin, at the time of filing, had no experimental basis for such assertion and that, while his “guess” turned out to be correct as shown by the Neeley and Wamser affidavits introduced by appellants, one wishing to prepare the new compound and use it should first be informed of the following “caution” Olin had received from his pharmacologist Latven: “Thus it is apparent that this compound is extremely toxic and is absorbed systemically within seconds following inhalation. WE URGE YOU TO TAKE EVERY PRECAUTION IN HANDLING THIS MATERIAL AND TO AVOID ACCIDENTAL INHALATION AT ALL COSTS. You can imagine what might happen if the glass container were accidentally dropped and broken on the laboratory floor.” Absent such information, say appellants, Olin’s teaching of the use of the new chemical as a solvent to form a paste or dispersion is “misleading to the ordinary chemist who might attempt to follow the teaching of Olin according to the ordinary and normal meaning of the words and statements used in the Olin application.”
As to disclosure [2], appellants point to ■evidence showing they tried the new compound with a number of synthetic fibers and found it would not soften or solu-bilize polystyrene, “Nylon,” “Mylar,” ■“Orion,” “Dacron,” “Acrilan,” and “Dy-nel,” but that it did soften or swell polyethylene and cellulose acetate “to some extent.” Polyvinylidene chloride was “slightly soluble” and polymethacrylate was said to be the only one “significantly soluble.” Olin testified that he never tested or used the new compound to soften or solubilize a synthetic material.
As to disclosure [3], again Olin testified that he had never chemically reacted the new compound. Appellants’ “experts” Wamser and Neeley found it to be “extremely stable.”
The board’s response to appellants’ position was:
We cannot agree with Krantz et al’s. position that the subject matter of the Olin applications is dangerous to the public and for that reason cannot serve as constructive reductions to practice. The record is decidedly to the contrary. It shows that the compound was safely handled while it was being prepared, and used for experimental and testing purposes. * * * It is, therefore, unnecessary to explore this aspect of the case in any great depth. There is of record pages 7 to 23 of The Handbook of Solvents, Scheflan and Jacobs, Tab 29, which are devoted to “Safe Practices in the Use of Solvents.” On page 22, examples of labeling “dangerous” solvents, recommended by the Manufacturing Chemists Association, are given. The handbook article shows that a good many solvents are more or less hazardous to use, but this fact alone does not prevent their use.
A similar situation exists in the ease of drugs where the question of safety in humans was raised by the Patent Office. The Court of Customs and Patent Appeals has expressed its views regarding this subject. In In re Krimmel, 48 CCPA 1116, 292 F.2d 948, 773 O.G. 607, 130 USPQ 215, 220, the Court said:
* * * the fact remains that the Patent Office has not been charged by Congress with the tasks of protecting the public against possible misuse of chemical patents [materials].
And in In re Hartop, 50 CCPA 780, 311 F.2d 249, 787 O.G. 235, 135 USPQ 419, 428, the Court, after an extended discussion of “safety” reiterated its position as set forth in its earlier decision, In re Krimmel, supra.
In short we fail to find any substance in the “safety” argument pressed by Krantz et al.
Nor do we agree with Krantz et al’s. contention that the Olin applications are not constructive reductions *1019to practice because Olin did not test for any of the utilities set forth in his applications. * * *
The difficulty with Krantz et al’s. position is that Speers, Krantz’s co-inventor, did make pastes or dispersions of fluorocarbon waxes as set forth in the Olin applications; * *. As stated in Robinson On Patents, (1890) Vol. 1, page 464, “When actual utility exists, its degree is unimportant.” On page 466 of the same work, “a patent is valid if the invention serves any use though it will not apply to all uses claimed for it;” see Phillips v. Risser (1885) 26 F.R. 308. In Landon v. Ginzton et al., 41 CCPA 950, 214 F.2d 160, 688 O.G. 213, 102 USPQ 230, 233, the Court said:
The patent application may reveal a number of purposes for the same invention. The inventor need prove only one practical use; only one useful result or effect.
* * * See also Friedman [Freedman] v. Overseas Scientific Corporation et al. (CA-2), 248 F.2d 274, 115 USPQ 42, 44, wherein it was held:
An article invented may have patentable utility even though the patented device is not unfailingly operable in all its applications. Hildreth v. Mastoras, 257 U.S. 27 [42 S.Ct. 20, 66 L.Ed. 112].
Since there is proof of one of the ’ disclosed utilities, it is unnecessary to reach the other uses set forth in the Olin specification.
Krantz et al. also contend that the Olin applications should contain a warning of the danger to people of the ether. We are not impressed by this argument. The specification is addressed to persons skilled in the art. Moreover, the “safety” aspect of the case has been discussed above and need not be repeated.
Krantz et al's. contention that the Olin applications are not constructive reductions to practice because Olin “guessed” at the disclosed utilities must be rejected. The answer to this argument is supplied by the case Automatic Weighing Machine Co. v. Pneumatic Scale Corp. Ltd. (CCA-1), 166 Fed.Rep. 288, 1909 C.D. 498, 506, 507. The Court, in that case, referred to the Supreme Court holding in the Telephone Cases [126 U.S. 1, 8 S.Ct. 778, 31 L.Ed. 863], 126 U.S. 1535, 1888 C.D. 321. There, when Bell applied for his patent he had never actually transmitted, telegraphically, spoken words so that they could be distinctly heard and understood at the receiving end of his line. But in his specification he described with sufficient precision to enable one of ordinary skill in such matters to make an apparatus, which, if used in the way pointed out, would produce the required effect, receive the words, and carry them to and deliver them at the appointed place.
The Supreme Court said in that case:
The law does not require that a discoverer or inventor, in order to get a patent for a process, must have succeeded in bringing his art to the highest degree of perfection. It is enough if he describes his method with sufficient clearness and precision to enable those skilled in the matter to understand what the process is, and if he points out some practicable way of putting it into operation.
Clearly, Olin has complied with the law as set forth in the foregoing excerpt. The record shows that Speers produced pastes and solutions of fluorocarbon waxes, as pointed out above. Therefore, it is our view that the Olin cases are complete and allowable applications and that Olin is entitled to the filing date of his parent application, namely, December *102029, 1955, for a constructive reduction to practice of the count; the Automatic Weighing Machine case, supra.
We agree with the foregoing reasoning of the board in disposing of appellants’ arguments. That being so, we do not accept appellants’ contention that a decision in their favor is compelled by In re Citron, 325 F.2d 248, 51 CCPA 852, the case alleged to be closest in point. That case is entirely distinguishable on the facts, for the application there asserted a use of “much public importance,” namely the effective treatment of cancer, which assertion was believed to be incredible in light of the knowledge of the art. Nothing to the contrary being shown, we affirmed the rejection in Citron of all claims, regardless of type. Here, asserted utilities have been shown to exist.
Appellants suggested at argument that we should apply the law of contracts as set forth in 17 C.J.S. Contracts § 155, note 48, to the effect that while there may be no obligation to disclose a fact, such a particular utility of a compound made by a process, if it is disclosed in an application the whole truth about it must be told, such as the toxicity of a material alleged to be useful as a solvent. We would suggest that this is not a contract case and that an applicant for a patent, notwithstanding the popular myth that a patent is a contract, is not negotiating a contract with the Government. Rather, he is applying for a grant in accordance with a statute under which the right to a patent depends on compliance with the statutory terms and conditions. The prosecution of an application is not bargaining but a process of demonstration and persuasion that the statute has been complied with. The examiner was persuaded that Olin had complied and the Board of Patent Interferences was not persuaded to the contrary by Krantz et al. Nor are we.
The decision of the board is affirmed.
Affirmed.
WORLEY, C. J., concurs in the result.

. This product, the patentability of which is still in dispute so far as the record shows, has been approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration and is now marketed under the trademark “Indoklon.” It has been found to be a “potent convulsant” and is used in the treatment of mental illness. A motion by appellants to add a count directed to this compound was denied. Its simple formula is: CF3-CH2-O-CH2-CF3. It is also known as bis (2,2,2-trifluoroethyl) ether and so referred to by Olin.

. Whether this issue is ancillary to priority is itself a potential issue (see Glass v. DeRoo, 239 F.2d 402, 44 CCPA 723), but will not be considered since it has not been raised.