Cooper v. Ford Motor Co.
| Citation | 223 USPQ 1286,748 F.2d 677 |
| Decision Date | 23 November 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 84-1016,84-1016 |
| Parties | Alfred COOPER, Appellant, v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Appellee. * Appeal |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit |
George M. Schwab, Townsend & Townsend, San Francisco, Cal., argued for appellant.
Herbert C. Snyder, Jr., Barnes & Thornberg, Indianapolis, Ind., argued for appellee. With him on the brief were William R. Coffey, Andrew James Richardson and Roland A. Fuller, III, Indianapolis, Ind.
Before SMITH, Circuit Judge, COWEN, Senior Circuit Judge, and NEWMAN, Circuit Judge.
Alfred Cooper appeals from the summary judgment entered in favor of Ford Motor Company by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and from the district court's refusal to consider certain post-judgment affidavits offered by Cooper. We reverse the grant of summary judgment and remand the case for further proceedings.
Appellant holds U.S. Patent No. 3,784,047 issued January 8, 1974 for a gas cap latching device. The device is designed to prevent mislatching of the cap of an automobile gas tank, essentially by preventing the cap from being engaged in other than the fully latched position. The Cooper cap avoids mislatching by what Cooper describes as a simple mechanism: he modified the spring-pressed sealing disk then used on gas caps to include longer latching lugs fitted with elongated blocking prongs, thereby achieving a cap structure which, although very easy to insert and use, cannot be rotated unless the cap is fully seated.
Claim 1 is representative:
1. A safety closure cap for bayonet connection with a filler spout of an automobile tank or the like, wherein the cap has a spring pressed sealing disc secured to an underside for sealing against the top of the spout, and wherein the spout has opposite notches only adjacent said top through which opposite latching lugs on said cap are insertable and upon turning of the cap it becomes latched over the top of the spout as the lugs ride over opposite cam surfaces on the spout which are located only adjacent the top thereof, the cap and the spout having an initial fit sufficiently loose whereby latching can be inadvertently effected by only one of the lugs with the cap tilted and the opposite lug engaging the top of the spout, said cap having means thereon to preclude said latching by only one lug, comprising opposite elongated blocking prongs extending downwardly from the respective latching lugs and which are engageable with either of the notches to prevent turning of the cap unless the cap is fully seated on the top of the spout.
Cooper sued the Ford Motor Company, alleging that Ford had infringed Cooper's patent by selling new and replacement gas caps whose structure was within the scope of the claims. Cooper sought an accounting for damages and an injunction against continued infringement. Ford moved for summary judgment on four grounds: laches, estoppel, fraud, and obviousness. The district court granted the motion on the ground of obviousness (and also on the ground of laches, which it reversed upon reconsideration), and denied the motion on the grounds of estoppel and fraud. Only the obviousness issue is before us.
In support of its motion on the ground of obviousness Ford referred to all of the references in the record which had been cited in patent prosecution or mentioned in any deposition, and "all other prior patents directed to bayonet-type closures for use on ... tanks" of which four were identified including Swiss Patent No. 109,104. Ford's brief discussed what teachings were found in some of these patents specifically. Ford cited Greenberg U.S. Patent No. 2,224,385 for showing the specific latching means used by Cooper. Cooper challenged this analysis of Greenberg, pointing out that the Greenberg cap was designed so that once affixed it could not be removed. Cooper also took issue with Ford's description of O'Neal U.S. Patent No. 2,531,860, pointing out that O'Neal's solution to the mislatching problem was different and complicated, and arguing that it was commercially impracticable and that O'Neal was not a more pertinent reference than those cited by the Patent Office--an issue that Ford had raised in support of its motion on the ground of "fraud" asserted for Cooper's failure to bring the O'Neal patent to the attention of the examiner.
Ford also discussed Swiss patent No. 109,104, not in the context of the asserted obviousness of the Cooper design, but to state that the accused Ford cap "is substantially identical to that shown in the Swiss patent" and therefore does not infringe the Cooper patent. Cooper did not address this argument in his response to Ford's motion; we observe that noninfringement was not included in the motion for summary judgment.
The court granted summary judgment on the grounds that in light of the O'Neal, Greenberg, and Swiss patents considered together, or in the light of the Swiss patent alone, Cooper's invention "is obvious as a matter of law" under 35 U.S.C. Sec. 103.
Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c) provides in pertinent part:
The judgment sought shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.
Cooper's position is that the district court erred in deciding this case summarily, and that the district court erred in deciding this case on specific grounds which were not raised by the parties. Cooper points out that material facts needed to support a judgment of obviousness were at issue, and that it was error under Fed.R.Civ.P. 56 for the court to resolve disputed facts. In sum, Cooper asserts that the summary judgment of obviousness was inappropriate because of the dispute over the teachings of the prior art, and that in any event the moving party was not entitled to a judgment as a matter of law from the references relied upon.
In Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 86 S.Ct. 684, 15 L.Ed.2d 545 (1966), the Supreme Court elaborated the procedure for determining whether an invention would have been obvious within the meaning of the patent statute. The case instructs courts to make three factual inquiries and to weigh other "secondary" considerations, as a predicate to the ultimate determination of law. Courts are to examine the facts relating to (1) the scope and content of the prior art, (2) differences between the prior art and the claims at issue, and (3) the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art. Other relevant factual considerations include commercial success, long-felt but unsolved need, and failure of others. 383 U.S. at 17-18, 86 S.Ct. at 693-694.
Despite the central role of these questions of fact in a challenge to the nonobviousness of an invention, this court has recognized that summary judgment is as appropriate in patent cases as in any other. In Chore-Time Equipment, Inc. v. Cumberland Corp., 713 F.2d 774, 778-79, 218 USPQ 673, 675 (Fed.Cir.1983), this court noted that
Many, if not most suits for patent infringement give rise to numerous and complex...
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