Thomas & Betts Corp. v. Winchester Electronics Div.

• Decision Date: 31 July 1981
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 78-552.
• Citation: 519 F. Supp. 1191
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Delaware
• Parties: THOMAS & BETTS CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. WINCHESTER ELECTRONICS DIVISION OF LITTON SYSTEMS, INC., Defendant.

519 F. Supp. 1191

THOMAS & BETTS CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. WINCHESTER ELECTRONICS DIVISION OF LITTON SYSTEMS, INC., Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 78-552.

United States District Court, D. Delaware.

July 31, 1981.

Harold Pezzner, Connolly, Bove & Lodge, Wilmington, Del., Sidney David, William L. Mentlik, Lerner, David, Littenberg & Samuel, Westfield, N. J., for plaintiff.

Edward M. McNally, Morris, James, Hitchens & Williams, Wilmington, Del., Robert E. Isner, Nims, Howes, Collison & Isner, New York City, Spencer T. Smith, Brian L. Ribando, Hartford, Conn., for defendant.

OPINION

STAPLETON, District Judge.

Thomas & Betts Corporation ("T & B") charges in this action that the manufacture and sale of products known as "D" subminiature connectors by Litton Systems, Inc., through its Winchester Electronics Division ("Winchester") constitute infringements of Claims 7 through 13 and 15 of T & B's U.S. Patent No. 3,990,767. This patent, issued to Ronald S. Narozny on November 9, 1976, is entitled ELECTRICAL CONTACT AND CONNECTOR MEANS EMPLOYING SAME.

Winchester is a Delaware corporation. This Court has jurisdiction over the subject matter of this action under 28 U.S.C. § 1338(a), and venue is properly laid in this District under 28 U.S.C. § 1391(c) and 1400(d). This Opinion constitutes the Court's findings of fact and conclusions of law after a trial on the merits.

The basic issues presented for decision are:

1. Is the Narozny patent invalid for lack of compliance with 35 U.S.C. § 112?

2. Does the Winchester "single strut" electrical connector construction infringe Narozny patent claims 7-13 and 15 under the "Doctrine of Equivalents"?

3. Are claims 7-13 and 15, in the broadened scope necessary to assert such infringement, valid under 35 U.S.C. § 102 and § 103?

An electrical "connector" is a device for connecting and disconnecting electrical circuits and conventionally consists of an insulating block or housing having a number of electrically isolated electrical contact members mounted in apertures therein with their conductor engaging end portions disposed in parallel spaced relation to permit ready connection and disconnection. One common electrical connector is the conventional electric lap plug which is inserted in a wall socket.

An electrical "contact" is one of the electrical conducting elements maintained within and forming a part of an electrical connector. A contact may consist of an elongated selectively shaped piece of metal having one end portion adapted to be connected to an electrical conductor, such as a wire, and having its other end portion also shaped, as in the nature of a pin or socket, to be separably engaged or connected to another properly located electrical contact element in a mating connector element.

Among the myriad of prior art electrical connectors was one identified as a "D" connector. Each such "D" connector was conventionally formed of an upper and a lower insulating housing section of particular perimetric shape having electrical contact members mounted therein. The particular perimetric configuration permits inter-connection in only one physical orientation.

Since the mating end portions of electrical connector contacts are conventionally parallel, there is a selected "pitch" or spacing between the contact end portions. The "D" connector construction conformed to a particular military specification and, in accord therewith, the mating conductor engaging end portions of the contact element had a pitch or spacing of .0545 inches.

In the early 1970's "flat cable" (assemblages of round wire conductors disposed in parallel uniformly spaced planar relation and encased in a common planar insulating sheath) became widely used. Different types of "flat cable" having varying numbers of wires and varying spacing or pitch between adjacent wires were available. A pitch of .050 inch between adjacent conductors was one commonly employed pitch for flat cable.

In the late 1960's, the concept of "mass termination" (the simultaneous connection of a number of contacts to the round wire electrical conductors of a flat cable) was developed by the Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing corporation. "Mass termination" of flat cable was achieved through the use of electrical connectors incorporating electrical contact elements having one conductor engaging end portion selectively shaped and slotted to receive and displace the insulation surrounding the wire. Such units are known as "IDC" or insulation displacement contacts. Critical to the use of IDC connectors was the precise location of the conductors of the flat cable. The successful commercial realization of this concept was delayed until the early 1970's because of the difficulty in accurately maintaining the precise spacing of the wires within the insulating sheath.

After commercial development of the technique of mass termination of flat cable through the use of IDCs and before 1974, D type connectors were offered in the market which mass terminated flat cable through the use of IDCs. These connectors consisted of an insulated housing with apertures in the bottom and top for the placement of the conductor engaging end portions of a plurality of contacts. The spacing of these apertures was the same on the top and the bottom and, accordingly, the contacts consisted of conductor engaging end portions connected by enter portions that went "straight through" the housing.

In 1974, T & B assigned Narozny the task of designing a "D" type connector that would mass terminate a .050 pitch flat cable as an input and interface a standard "D" configuration on its output side. The assignment was thus to design a connector which would effect a "pitch change." His design efforts were ultimately embodied in a formal "invention disclosure" write-up submitted to T & B's in-house patent department. This invention disclosure included a two part housing structure and three separate electrical contact structures adapted to effect the necessary lateral offsetting of one of the conductor engaging end portions thereof to effect the required change in pitch from the input to the output side of a connector housing. More specifically:

The Narozny patent drawings and specifications illustrate and describe an electrical contact structure having a central portion in the form of a pair of spaced parallel struts disposed between the conductor engaging end portions. Insofar as the central portion of the contact member is concerned, all of the Narozny claims conform in scope to that of the drawings and descriptive text, i. e., a central portion constituted by "a pair of spaced parallel struts. . . .".

No significant changes were made in either the specification or claims during the Patent Office prosecution. Claims 7-13 and 15 here in issue, were allowed in the first Office Action.

With respect to the claims in issue, claim 7 is the only one that is of so-called "independent" character, and hence, if claim 7 is not infringed, then one of the dependent claims 8-13 and 15 cannot be infringed.

The parties are in agreement that claim 7 can be divided into twelve segments:

"7. An electrical connecting device comprising"

1 an elongate contact housing having an upper portion and a lower portion;

2 there being a series of first transverse apertures extending through said upper portion of said contact housing and aligned along a first common axis;

3 there being a series of second transverse apertures extending through said lower portion of said contact housing and aligned along a second common axis, said first common axis and said second common axis extending generally parallel to on another;

4 said series of first transverse apertures being spaced from one another a first given distance;

5 said series of second transverse apertures being spaced from one a second given distance different than said first given distance;

6 each aperture of said series of first transverse apertures being selectively aligned with a corresponding aperture of said series of second transverse apertures along a predetermined axis and thereby defining a series of pairs of apertures;

7 and a series of electrical contacts, one for each of said pairs of apertures;

8 each of said contacts comprising an elongate member having a first conductor engaging end portion;

9 a second conductor engaging end portion and a central portion connecting said first end portion to said second end portion;

10 said central portion comprising a pair of spaced parallel struts each terminating in end portions rigidly affixed to a respective one of said conductor engaging end portions and bendable thereat in a preferred direction within a common plane so that said first conductor engaging end portion and said second conductor engaging end portion may be selectively axially offset from one another in a direction parallel to said common plane;

11 each of said contacts being disposed between a corresponding one of said pairs of apertures in said contact housing so that said first conductor engaging end portion extends within a corresponding one of said first transverse apertures and said second conductor engaging end portion extends within a corresponding one of said second transverse apertures, said central portion of said contact being aligned with said predetermined axis;

12 whereby said first conductor engaging end portions of said contacts are spaced from one another said first given distance, and said second conductor engaging end portions of said contacts are spaced from one another said second given distance so that said first conductor engaging end portions may be connected to conductive elements having a spacing therebetween generally equal to said first given distance, and said second conductor engaging end portions may be connected to conductive elements having a spacing therebetween generally equal to said second given distance."

The structure claimed in claim 7 is best illustrated by Figure 6:

T & B introduced the Narozny "...