Court Opinion

ID: 8804862
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-26 14:44:58.960864+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:04:03.482638
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
PER CURIAM.
On application for rehearing, the Miami Company, for the first time, brings to our attention the claim that Robinson accepted the retransfer to him of everything which the company had received from him, and to which attempted retransfer the opinion refers. This suit was commenced on July 13, 1914. On November 2, 1914, by an 'amendment to the answer, the defendant alleged that it had renounced the contract by notification to Robinson in a letter dated *570and mailed on September 29, 1914, and that the defendant had retransferred to Robinson all the patents and applications which were the subject-matter of the contract. To this Robinson replied denying that the defendant had any right to renounce the contract as claimed in the amendment. We think we rightly interpreted this record as failing to show that any retransfer to Robinson had been effectively made. We are now told that, in the court below, it was agreed between counsel that the retransfer had been completed on September 29, 1914, that Robinson’s brief in the court below was upon that theory, and that the decree framed by Robinson’s counsel in the court below is upon the same theory, and, for that reason, awarded only that royalty which had accrued up to September 29.
Counsel for Robinson, responding to the application for rehearing, do not concede that the transfer was made and accepted; yet we are not sure that they deny it. It may be that when the reply denied the right of the company to “renounce” the contract it contemplated only'the liability already accrued. If in fact the retransfer was accepted by Robinson, either expressly or as a necessary effect of what was said and done in the court below, and if the intent and effect of the retransfer were to deprive the company of its status as licensee under the main patent, it is obvious that there could be no recovery in this suit, except for the royalties which had then accrued; but the existence and all the effect of such retransfer and acceptance cannot be decided by us upon this record. These questions must be remitted to the court below for its decision, except as hereafter stated.
It is not now apparent to us how this retransfer can affect the right to recover the royalties then already accrued; but if there are reasons which lead to such a result, the court below will be at liberty to consider them and give them due effect. We have held that the company has the right to initiate proceedings looking toward a judicial determination that the patent was invalid; but for the reasons stated in the opinion it must be assumed that its obligation to pay royalties and be considered a licensee continued at least till September 29, 1914; and it cannot be heard to question the validity of the patent as against royalties arising before that date. If, therefore, it shall be found that the company then ceased to have the rights and carry the burdens of a licensee, there will be no occasion to litigate the validity of the patent. In the event that it is so found, the decree below will require no modifications, except those resulting from the conclusion that the accruing of royalty will begin January 6, 1913, and the recovery thereof will be upon condition' that Robinson execute and deliver (instead of the exclusive license specified by the opinion)' an assignment of the legal title to and the right to recover all profits and damages that accrued from any infringement of the reissued patent by others prior to September 29, 1914, and which assignment shall provide that one-half of the net sums collected thereunder shall be paid by the company to Robinson-. The other conditions specified in the opinion to attach to the execution-of the decree will be inappropriate.
The application for rehearing is denied; and, except a's herein pro.vided, the conclusion's of the opinion remain unmodified.