Court Opinion

ID: 9428051
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:22:38.801002+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:11.433184
License: Public Domain

Mb. Justice Stevens,
dissenting.
This, patentee has offered no licenses, either to competing sellers of propanil or to consumers, except the implied license that is granted with every purchase of propanil from it. Thus, every license granted under this patent has been conditioned on the purchase of an unpatented product from the patentee. This is a classic case of patent misuse. As Mr. Justice White demonstrates in his dissenting opinion, nothing in 35 U. S. C. § 271 (d) excludes this type of conduct from the well-established misuse doctrine.
The Court may have been led into reaching the contrary, and in my view erroneous, conclusion by the particular facts of this case. It appears that it would not be particularly *241profitable to exploit this patent by granting express licenses for fixed terms to users of propanil or by granting licenses to competing sellers. Under these circumstances, the patent may well have little or no commercial value unless the patentee is permitted to engage in patent misuse. But surely this is not a good reason for interpreting § 271 (d) to permit such misuse. For the logic of the Court’s holding would seem to justify the extension of the patent monopoly to un-patented “nonstaples” even in eases in which the patent could be profitably exploited without misuse. Thus, for example, it appears that the Court’s decision would allow a manufacturer to condition a long-term lease of a patented piece of equipment on the lessee’s agreement to purchase tailormade — i. e., nonstaple — supplies or components for use with the equipment exclusively from the patentee. Whether all of the five Members of the Court who have joined today’s revision of § 271 (d) would apply their “nonstaple” exception in such a case remains to be seen. In all events,-1 respectfully dissent for the reasons stated in Me. Justice White’s opinion, which I join.