Deere & Co. v. Sperry Rand Corp.
| Decision Date | 31 March 1975 |
| Docket Number | No. 71-1897,71-1897 |
| Citation | 513 F.2d 1131 |
| Parties | DEERE & COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. SPERRY RAND CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Before TRASK and WALLACE, Circuit Judges, and KELLEHER, * District Judge.
Deere & Company (Deere) brought this action to declare invalid four hay-harvesting patents owned by Sperry Rand Corporation (Sperry Rand). The district court held the patents invalid because the patented machine was a combination of old elements anticipated by the prior art of mower-conditioners and containing only obvious improvements upon it. Sperry Rand appeals, limiting its arguments to claims 13 (method), 16 (device) and 20 (machine) of Patent No. 3,375,643 (the '643 patent). We affirm.
The '643 patent describes a hay-harvesting machine, the "Haybine," designed to mow hay and condition the cut crop for quick drying in a single operation. Prior mower-conditioners known to the art (exemplified by the Crose machine 1) consisted of a cutting blade in combination with a raking reel whose tines lifted the crop across the cutting blade and then pushed the cut crop material up a short ramp to the conditioning rolls which would crush or crack the stems of the cut crop, allowing moisture to escape. These prior machines were subject to frequent plugging when cut hay would pile up in front of the conditioning rolls and, consequently, were not widely used. New Holland, a division of Sperry Rand, solved the plugging problem in the Haybine by: (1) placing the raking reel closer to the rolls and using cam-actuated tines on the reel to deliver the cut hay directly to the rolls; (2) installing a rough- surfaced upper roll slightly ahead of the lower roll to "strip" the reel of the cut crop; and (3) increasing the speed of the rolls relative to the reel to aid in stripping the reel. The Haybine employed the same or similar elements existing in prior art but in the above altered form.
At the outset, Sperry Rand asserts that the district court erred in holding that the defendant-owner of a patent in a declaratory judgment action has the burden of proof on validity of the patent, contrary to the statutory presumption of validity contained in 35 U.S.C. § 282. 2 However, when a patent is attacked as obvious in light of prior art, the presumption dissipates upon a showing that the prior art was not brought to the attention of the patent examiners. Hewlett-Packard Co. v. Tel-Design, Inc.,460 F.2d 625, 628 (9th Cir. 1972). The Crose hay harvester, conceded to be the most important prior art with respect to the '643 patent, was not presented to, nor considered by, the Patent Office in granting the challenged patent. Hence, the presumption was insufficient in the face of the unconsidered prior art to shift the burden of proof on the validity issue to Deere.
Sperry Rand primarily argues that the district court used an improper standard for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. § 103. 3 The district court required that a combination patent comprised of old elements " must result in new and surprising consequences and not merely produce a result consistent with the expected operation of the sum of the constituent elements." (Emphasis added.) The "unusual or surprising consequences" test for patentability of combination devices originated in Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Supermarket Equip. Corp., 340 U.S. 147, 152, 71 S.Ct. 127, 95 L.Ed. 162 (1950). That requirement has not been superseded but is now codified in35 U.S.C. § 103, which denies patentability if the differences between the subject of the patent and the prior art would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art. Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 14-17, 86 S.Ct. 684, 15 L.Ed.2d 545 (1966). While we have more recently emphasized the "unusual or surprising" language in A & P Tea, we have also authorized slight modifications of this language, such as "new and unexpected" results. Regimbal v. Scymansky, 444 F.2d 333, 338-40 (9th Cir. 1971). The district court did not err when it determined the issue of obviousness by requiring a new and surprising result. 4
Sperry Rand asserts that a significant new result or mode of operation was obtained in the '643 patent by increasing the speed of the rolls relative to the raking reel, which "accelerated and...
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