PATENT LAW - CONDITIONS IN LEASES MADE BY PATENTEE TO HIS LICENSEES - SUITS FOR DIRECT INFRINGEMENT

Authors

Brooks F. Crabtree, University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

Respondent manufactured and leased patented devices used in the canning industry for depositing salt tablets. One condition in the leases for these machines required licensees to use with the patented machines only tablets sold by respondent's subsidiary. Respondent sued in the district court for an injunction and an accounting for infringement of its patent by petitioner, who manufactured and leased infringing salt-depositing machines. Upon petitioner's motion to dismiss on the ground that respondent was making use of its patent to restrain the sale of salt tablets in competition with its own sale of unpatented tablets, the trial court granted a summary judgment dismissing the complaint. The Supreme Court granted certiorari because of the public interest involved and the alleged conflict of the decision below with prior decisions. Held, that since respondent, by using its patent to restrain competition in the marketing of unpatented articles, was creating a monopoly beyond the scope of the patent in violation of public policy, it was not entitled to any relief against the petitioner, Morton Salt Co. v. G. S. Suppiger Co., 314 U.S. 488, 62 S. Ct. 402 (1942).

Recommended Citation

Brooks F. Crabtree, PATENT LAW - CONDITIONS IN LEASES MADE BY PATENTEE TO HIS LICENSEES - SUITS FOR DIRECT INFRINGEMENT, 40 Mich. L. Rev. 1266 (1942).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol40/iss8/20