MR. CHIEF JUSTICE STONE delivered the opinion of the Court.
In this patent infringement suit the question is whether the assignor of a patent is estopped by virtue of his assignment to defend a suit for infringement of the assigned patent on the ground that the alleged infringing device is that of a prior art, expired patent.
Automatic Paper Machinery Company, Inc., petitioner's assignor, acquired by assignment, from respondent Marcalus, Patent No. 1,843,429 of February 2, 1932, issued on the application of Marcalus for "a method and machine for mounting a cutting strip of a hard non-metallic substance on an edge of a box blank." The patent describes and claims a method, and a machine for employing it, whereby, in substantially one operation, indurated paper is drawn from a roll and brought into overlapping relationship with the edge of a box blank, when a strip of the paper is automatically cut off and glued to the box blank in such position that its longitudinal edge projects beyond the edge of the box blank. The box thus equipped with the cutting edge of the strip is useful as a dispensing container for rolled wax paper which, as drawn from the roll, may be cut in any desired lengths by drawing it across the
In the present suit, brought by petitioner for infringement of the assigned patent, respondents defended on the ground that their accused machine is a copy of that of the expired, prior art patent issued to Inman in 1912. The District Court gave judgment for petitioner, 54 F.Supp. 105, holding that inasmuch as respondents were estopped by Marcalus' assignment of the patent to show its invalidity, they could not, by recourse to the prior art to show noninfringement, accomplish the same result by indirection. The Court of Appeals reversed, 147 F.2d 608, holding that the prior art may be resorted to by the assignor to measure the extent of anticipation for the purpose of limiting the claims of the assigned patent, and thus avoid infringement. Because of the identity patent-wise of the Inman patent with the assigned patent and with the accused device, the court held that the claims of the assigned patent were limited to naught, and hence that there could be no infringement.
To sustain its right to enjoin infringement by the assignor of a patented invention anticipated by a prior art patent, petitioner relies on the doctrine of estoppel as applied to the assignor of a patent for value. Its basic principle is said to be one of good faith, that one who has sold his invention may not, to the detriment of the purchaser, deny the existence of that which he has sold. See Westinghouse Co. v. Formica Co., 288 F. 330, 333. The rule, as stated by this Court in Westinghouse Co. v. Formica
Respondents, denying that the doctrine of estoppel can rightly be applied to patent assignments, also insist that the present case is not within the scope of the doctrine. Compare Buckingham Products Co. v. McAleer Mfg. Co., 108 F.2d 192 with Casco Products Corp. v. Sinko Tool & Mfg. Co., 116 F.2d 119. Both parties rely on the decision of this Court in the Formica case, supra, which, although stating that the assignor cannot deny the novelty and validity of the assigned patented invention, nevertheless held that the claims of a patent may be narrowed by reference to the prior art so as to restrict them to so much of the invention described by the specifications as is not exhibited by the prior art. Klein v. Russell, 19 Wall. 433, 466, 467; Garneau v. Dozier, 102 U.S. 230; Wollensak v. Reiher, 115 U.S. 87; Beidler v. United States, 253 U.S. 447; Mackay Co. v. Radio Corp., 306 U.S. 86, 94. Cf. Hocking & Co. v. Hocking, 4 R.P.C. 255, 434, 6 R.P.C. 69; Clark v. Adie, 2 App. Cas. 423; Crosthwaite v. Steel, 6 R.P.C. 190.
This Court in the Formica case, passing the question, not present here, whether the estoppel of the assignor extends to claims added by the assignee to the application in the Patent Office, held that the estoppel did not, in any
Petitioner, pointing to the logical embarrassment in applying a doctrine which forbids the assignor to deny validity of the patented invention for want of novelty, but nevertheless allows him to narrow its scope by reference to the prior art in order to save his accused device from infringement, insists that the court below has resorted to the prior art, not for the purpose of narrowing the claims and distinguishing from the prior art something which the assignor invented, but for the purpose of destroying the claims because anticipated. This is said to be precisely the same in purpose and effect as to deny invention for want of novelty. It is urged that the permission thus given to respondent assignor to show want of novelty which he is estopped to deny, is to disregard the estoppel by which, by hypothesis, he is bound.
Respondents, on the other hand, insist that a literal application of the rule of the Formica case limits the claims of the assigned patent to a structure having certain minor mechanical additions made by Marcalus to the machine of the Inman patent which respondents copied by their accused device. These additions, it is conceded, may not involve invention, but if so, it is said, respondents are estopped to assert it. And applying the rule of the
But in the circumstances of this case we find it unnecessary to pursue these logical refinements, or to determine whether, as respondent asks, the doctrine of estoppel by patent assignment as stated by the Formica case should be rejected. To whatever extent that doctrine may be deemed to have survived the Formica decision or to be restricted by it, we think that case is not controlling here. For other considerations are dispositive of this case, in which, unlike Formica, the accused machine is precisely that of an expired patent. Neither in that case nor in any other, so far as we are advised, was the doctrine of estoppel applied so as to penalize the use of the invention of an expired patent. That we think is foreclosed by the patent laws themselves.
Revised Statutes, §§ 4886, 4884 as amended, 35 U.S.C. §§ 31, 40, provide for the grant of a patent for a term of seventeen years to any person who has invented a "new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter." The grant is conditioned upon the filing of an application in the Patent Office describing the invention and the manner of making and using it. R.S. § 4888 as amended, 35 U.S.C. § 33. Revised Statutes, §§ 4895, 4898, 35 U.S.C. §§ 44, 47, authorize the assignment of an invention while the application for a patent is pending and of the patent rights to the invention after the patent has issued. Section 24 (7) of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. § 41 (7), confers on district courts of the United States jurisdiction of cases arising under the patent laws, and R.S. § 4921 as amended, 35 U.S.C. § 70, gives the district courts authority to entertain suits to restrain infringement and for recovery of any resulting damage from the infringement of any right secured by the patent grant.
The aim of the patent laws is not only that members of the public shall be free to manufacture the product or employ the process disclosed by the expired patent, but also that the consuming public at large shall receive the benefits of the unrestricted exploitation, by others, of its disclosures. Kellogg Co. v. National Biscuit Co., 305 U.S. 111, 117-120. If a manufacturer or user could restrict himself, by express contract, or by any action which would give rise to an "estoppel," from using the invention of an
By the force of the patent laws not only is the invention of a patent dedicated to the public upon its expiration, but the public thereby becomes entitled to share in the good will which the patentee has built up in the patented article or product through the enjoyment of his patent monopoly. Hence we have held that the patentee may not exclude the public from participating in that good will or secure, to any extent, a continuation of his monopoly by resorting to the trademark law and registering as a trademark any particular descriptive matter appearing in the specifications, drawings or claims of the expired patent, whether or not such matter describes essential elements of the invention or claims. Kellogg Co. v. National Biscuit Co., supra, 117-120; Singer Manufacturing Co. v. June Manufacturing Co., 163 U.S. 169, 185.
It is thus apparent that the patent laws preclude the patentee of an expired patent and all others including petitioner from recapturing any part of the former patent monopoly; for those laws dedicate to all the public the ideas and inventions embodied in an expired patent. They do not contemplate that anyone by contract or any
The judgment is affirmed for the reason that we find that the application of the doctrine of estoppel so as to foreclose the assignor of a patent from asserting the right to make use of the prior art invention of an expired patent, which anticipates that of the assigned patent, is inconsistent
We have no occasion to consider the question discussed in briefs and arguments of counsel, whether the estoppel by patent assignment violates either the terms or policy of the laws against restraints of trade and competition.
Affirmed.
MR. JUSTICE REED considers that the dominant rule of Westinghouse Co. v. Formica Co., 266 U.S. 342, 349, is "that an assignor of a patent right is estopped to attack the utility, novelty or validity of a patented invention which he has assigned or granted as against any one claiming the right under his assignment or grant." The fact that the prior art is evidenced by an expired patent does not seem significant to him. Consequently he would reverse.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.
MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER, dissenting.
When by a fair and free bargain a man sells something to another, it hardly lies in his mouth to say, "I have sold you nothing." It certainly offends the rudimentary sense of justice for courts to support one who purports to sell
It has never been questioned that courts will not make themselves instruments of unfair dealing when what is sold is a patent. In technical language, the sale of a patent means its assignment. Congress might have confined the right to exploit a patent solely to the patentee. Congress has acted on the contrary policy. Ever since the Act of February 21, 1793, 1 Stat. 318, Congress has sanctioned the right to assign patents, requiring only fulfillment of certain formalities. To be sure, Congress has not said in so many words that the seller of a patent — an assignor — is subject like other sellers to the obligations of fair dealing. It has not said that he cannot turn around on the morrow and render futile that which he has sold by claiming that what he purported to sell as a patent was in truth not a patent, and, since it was not a patent, he, the seller, could not be charged with impairing the worth of the patent by practising it himself. Until this day such a sophistical argument to accomplish overreaching in a business transaction has uniformly been rejected by the courts, and it has been rejected by this Court on basic considerations of "fair dealing." Westinghouse Co. v. Formica Co., 266 U.S. 342, 350. It is relevant to recall that insistence on this doctrine was unanimously made in the Formica case by a Court which included Mr. Justice Brandeis, than whom no one was more zealously alert against the slightest inroads upon the public interest through undue extension of patent rights. It is important to emphasize that the principle of good faith which the
To be sure, the patent legislation does not in so many words formulate this doctrine of fair dealing between assignor and assignee. But patent legislation, like other legislation and indeed like all compositions, impliedly contains presuppositions which need not be spelled out precisely because they are taken for granted. The fair intendment of a patent assignment authorized by Congress is as much to be respected as the same meaning explicitly stated. Patent legislation is part of the great body of law. Familiar equitable doctrines, applicable to the whole domain of law and unquestioned as part of the judicial process, are infused into specific enactments dealing only with the specific problems that call for specific formulation. If warrant in the language of Congress had to be found for all adjudications made by this Court in litigation involving patents, no inconsiderable volume of decisions drawn from general equitable principles ought never to have been made and should be undone.
The principle of fair dealing as between assignor and assignee of a patent whereby the assignor will not be allowed to say that what he sold as a patent was not a patent has been part of the fabric of our law throughout the life of this nation. It has been undeviatingly enforced by English-speaking courts in this country, in England, in Canada, and Australia. See, e.g., Oldham v. Langmead, cited in Hayne v. Maltby, 3 T.R. 438, 439, 441 (1789); Indiana Mfg. Co. v. Smith, 10 Can. Exch. 17 (1905); Shepherd v. Patent Composition Pavement Co., 5 Aust. Jur. 27 (1874). If there are reasons of public policy against the continued application of this equitable doctrine
The Court professes neither to reject, nor to adhere to, the equitable principle of fair dealing reaffirmed by the Formica case. It finds ground for avoiding what seem to me to be inescapable alternatives by the claim that the assignor here purported to assign a patent which turns out to be invalid because it now appears that it was based on an earlier expired patent. Since an expired patent makes it part of the public domain, the assignor, although he had sold what need not have been bought, could enter the domain like the rest of the public. So goes the argument. But this, I submit with all respect, is to throw out the baby with the bath. For it amounts to saying that the assignor in raising invalidity in a suit for infringement is just a part of the general public and can ask the Court to enforce every defense open to the rest of the public. The essence of the principle of fair dealing which binds the assignor of a patent in a suit by the assignee, even
FootNotes
By § 515 of the Restatement of Contracts, a restraint of trade is unreasonable and hence unlawful if it "is based on a promise to refrain from competition and is not ancillary either to a contract for the transfer of good will or other subject of property . . ." See generally as to the validity of contracts not to compete 76 Pa. L. Rev. 244, 257 ff.; Handler, Cases and Materials on Trade Regulation, 102-150.
Comment
User Comments