Interconnect Planning Corp. v. Feil

• Decision Date: 09 October 1985
• Docket Number: 85-565,Nos. 84-1467,s. 84-1467
• Citation: 227 USPQ 543,774 F.2d 1132
• Parties: INTERCONNECT PLANNING CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Thomas E. FEIL, Robert O. Carpenter, V Band Systems, Inc., and Turret Equipment Corp., * Defendants-Appellees. Appeal
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit

Page 1132

774 F.2d 1132

227 U.S.P.Q. 543

INTERCONNECT PLANNING CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Thomas E. FEIL, Robert O. Carpenter, V Band Systems, Inc. and Turret Equipment Corp., ^* Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal Nos. 84-1467, 85-565.

United States Court of Appeals Federal Circuit.

Oct. 9, 1985.

Alfred P. Ewert, Morgan, Finnegan, Pine, Foley & Lee, New York City, argued for plaintiff-appellant. With him on the brief were Jerome G. Lee, Robert A. Molan and Richard J. McGrath.

Howard Karasik, Sherman & Citron, P.C., New York City, of counsel.

Lawrence G. Kurland, Stiefel, Gross, Kurland & Pavane, P.C., New York City, argued for defendants-appellees Feil, et al.; Lance J. Lieberman, Daniel L. Dolgin, Towne, Dolgin, Sawyer & Horton, New York City, Peter R. Stern and Theodore S. Steingut, Berger, Steingut, Weiner, Fox & Stern, New York City, were on the brief.

Before DAVIS, SMITH, and NEWMAN, Circuit Judges.

PAULINE NEWMAN, Circuit Judge.

Interconnect Planning Corporation (IPC) appeals from the summary judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Interconnect Planning Corp. v. Feil, 587 F.Supp. 1495, 223 USPQ 961 (S.D.N.Y.1984), holding invalid all the claims of IPC's Reissue Patent No. 31,144 entitled "Multi Station Telephone Switching System", invention of Thomas E. Feil, for failure to meet the conditions for patent validity under 35 U.S.C. Sec. 103, and dismissing IPC's count for patent infringement. We hold that invalidity under Sec. 103 has not been proven, as a matter of law. We vacate the summary judgment of invalidity and dismissal of the infringement count, and remand to the district court.

Background

The claims of Reissue Patent No. 31,144 are for certain telephone systems known as "trader turrets", which are multi-line telephone consoles used by the financial community in trading networks for securities, commodities, currency, and the like. The purpose of these systems is to facilitate concurrent telephone connections for traders requiring multiple sources of price information, conducting multiple transactions, and generally meeting the communication demands of busy, often hectic, financial trading enterprises. Trading rooms may house a hundred or more trader turrets.

Because of the large number of lines and connections required and the specific needs of these communication networks, these systems are complex. A high degree of reliability is required in their operation, because even momentary failures can be extremely costly.

The record shows that the Feil trader turrets rapidly achieved commercial success, displacing other systems then in use. IPC attributes the success of the Feil invention to its novel system "architecture", which enabled ease of operation, high capacity, and improved reliability over the systems then available. IPC's sales of the Feil trader turrets, according to the record, grew from $320,000 for 20 units in 1974, its first year, to $27,900,000 for 3500 units in 1983.

Thomas Feil, the inventor, was formerly an officer and part owner of IPC. In 1977 Mr. Feil formed the defendant company V Band Systems, Inc., and in 1980 Mr. Feil left IPC and joined V Band, of which he is president and chief executive officer. Defendants make and sell the trader turrets that are here accused of patent infringement.

On November 21, 1980 IPC filed suit in the Southern District of New York asserting infringement of U.S. Patent No. 3,991,282 (the '282 patent), invention of Thomas Feil. Defendants Feil and V Band raised the defense this patent was invalid in terms of 35 U.S.C. Sec. 103. IPC's count for unfair competition was dismissed by the court and is not before us. Various counterclaims were separated and are apparently still pending.

In May of 1981 IPC filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (the PTO) an application to reissue the '282 patent. IPC cited to the examiner articles by M.E. Ozenberger and W.H. Keith, both of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, on which articles defendants were relying before the district court, and which had not previously been before the examiner. The district court refused to stay the action before it pending completion of the reissue examination, and therefore the reissue examination was suspended by the PTO in accordance with its rules. On defendants' motion for summary judgment, the district court on June 1, 1982 held all claims of the '282 patent invalid for obviousness under 35 U.S.C. Sec. 103. Interconnect Planning Corp. v. Feil, 543 F.Supp. 610, 614-19, 215 USPQ 734, 736-41 (S.D.N.Y.1982).

Following this decision, at IPC's request the PTO resumed examination of the reissue application. The court's decision was provided to and considered by the examiner. A supplemental reissue declaration by IPC referred to this decision as a basis for the reissue application. The '282 patent was surrendered, and on February 8, 1983 the PTO granted the reissue patent, RE 31,144, IPC having restricted its claims in various ways and having overcome the newly cited prior art.

Defendants moved for summary judgment of invalidity of the reissue patent, asserting collateral estoppel based on the court's decision on the '282 patent, and also asserting invalidity under 35 U.S.C. Sec. 103. IPC resisted the motion, and the parties' memoranda, affidavits, depositions, and other documents are of record. For reasons similar to those of the 1982 decision, the motion for summary judgment was granted on June 20, 1984.

That decision, holding all of the reissue claims invalid, was certified and made final under Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b), with instructions by the court that IPC "attempt to have any appeal ... heard at the same time and before the same panel" as any appeal from a decision on the same patent by the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. ¹ We agreed. Both appeals are decided this day.

Although both appeals involved similar issues and argument, specific to the New York suit are certain procedural issues, as discussed infra.

Collateral Estoppel

Defendants argue that IPC's appeal rights are curtailed on the basis of collateral estoppel. Two separate but related issues of estoppel are raised, both arising out of the district court's 1982 decision on the '282 patent.

A.

Defendants assert first that IPC can not now appeal from or argue those aspects of the 1984 decision on the reissue patent which are "common to" the 1982 decision on the '282 patent, on the ground that those aspects could have been appealed earlier, and that it is too late to do so now. IPC asserts in response that (1) the issues are not the same, (2) a different patent is involved, and (3) the 1982 decision was not final.

Considering the finality issue, for collateral estoppel to arise the prior decision need not have been final in the sense of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1291 but, in the words of the Restatement, the prior adjudication must have been "sufficiently firm to be accorded conclusive effect". Restatement (Second) of Judgments Sec. 13 (1982). Sufficient firmness, according to the Restatement, requires that the party against whom the estoppel is asserted have had the right, even if not exercised, to challenge on appeal the correctness of the earlier decision. Restatement (Second) of Judgment, Sec. 13 reporter's note comment f (1982). Defendants argue that IPC had three such opportunities: appeal under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1292(a)(1), which governs appeals from interlocutory orders involving injunctions; appeal under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1292(c)(2), which governs appeals in patent infringement cases final except for an accounting; and appeal under Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b), which governs judgment on fewer than all of multiple claims in an action.

None of these situations controls the case before us. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1292(a)(1) relates to orders involving injunctions, and although defendants argue that IPC's complaint necessarily invokes this section, this does not impart automatic appealability to interlocutory orders that do not involve injunctions. As for 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1292(c)(2), the district court's judgment was not final except for an accounting, in light of the pendency of counterclaims. 9 J. Moore, B. Ward, & J. Lucas, Moore's Federal Practice, p 110.19, at 220 (1985). Fed.R.Civ.Proc. 54(b) requires that the court have expressly directed entry of a final judgment, and that "[i]n the absence of such determination and direction, any [decision] which adjudicates fewer than all the claims ... shall not terminate the action as to any of the claims". See also 6 Moore's Federal Practice p 54.42, at 813.

Neither IPC nor the defendants asked the district court to enter a final judgment on its decision holding the '282 patent invalid, and the court did not do so. Defendants assert, however, that IPC should now be estopped because it did not move for finality of the ruling nor request that the judgment be certified for interlocutory appeal. An application for certification is by no means certain to be granted and, in this case, IPC's eventual request for certification of the original decision was opposed by defendants and was refused by the court.

The law of collateral estoppel is not intended to penalize a party for declining to try to take a piecemeal appeal. Further, the '282 patent had been placed in reissue, and an appeal on the merits of patent claims for which reissue was being sought would have been a meaningless exercise, as may have been recognized at the time.

We conclude that the district court's 1982 decision on the '282 patent claims, a decision not final, not certified, not appealed, and mooted by subsequent events, lacks collateral estoppel effect for the purpose urged by defendants. The issue here on appeal is the validity of the claims of the reissue patent, an issue that did not exist at the time of the decision on validity of the '282 patent claims. There is no estoppel against appellate review of all aspects pertinent to the decision on...