Iowa State Univ. Research Found., Inc. v. Honeywell, Inc., 71-1531.
| Decision Date | 03 May 1972 |
| Docket Number | No. 71-1531.,71-1531. |
| Citation | 459 F.2d 447 |
| Parties | IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FOUNDATION, INC., Intervenor-Appellant, v. HONEYWELL, INC., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. SPERRY RAND CORPORATION et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Jerome F. Fallon, Timothy L. Tilton, Dawson, Tilton, Fallon & Lungmus, Chicago, Ill., for intervenor-appellant.
Frank Claybourne, Doherty, Rumble & Butler, St. Paul, Minn., H. Francis DeLone, Harvey Bartle, III, Dechert, Price & Rhoads, Philadelphia, Pa., Thomas M. Ferrill, Jr., Blue Bell, Pa., for appellees, Sperry Rand Corp. and Ill. Scientific Developments, Inc.
Before VAN OOSTERHOUT, MEHAFFY and STEPHENSON, Circuit Judges.
This is a timely appeal by Iowa State University Research Foundation, Inc. (ISURF) from an order, 54 F.R.D. 594, denying it a right to intervene in litigation pending between Honeywell, Inc., and Sperry Rand Corporation, et al., relating to the validity and infringement of Patent No. 3,120,606 issued to Eckert and Mauchly, inventors, and assigned to Illinois Scientific Developments, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sperry Rand.
The patent, issued February 4, 1964, involves a high speed, large scale digital computer known as the ENIAC computer. The Honeywell suit was commenced on May 26, 1967. Extensive discovery proceedings were engaged in during the next three and one-half years. Many depositions were taken; over 30,000 exhibits were identified. Honeywell's brief, setting forth its factual and legal claims, contains 1,167 pages. Trial commenced on June 1, 1971.
ISURF on July 21, 1971, a month and one-half after the commencement of the trial on the merits, filed a motion for leave to intervene under Rule 24(a), Fed.R.Civ.P., tendering a petition raising the issue that John V. Atanasoff was a joint inventor of Patent No. 3,120,606 (along with Eckert and Mauchly) and seeking an order to correct the patent record under 35 U.S.C.A. § 256 to show Atanasoff to be a joint inventor. ISURF is assignee of Atanasoff's rights in the patent. ISURF and its assignor have been aware of this litigation since shortly after the inception of this action in 1967.
Sperry Rand vigorously opposed the intervention, asserting that the intervention raises an entirely new issue, to wit, that Atanasoff was a co-inventor and that to fairly investigate and present evidence on this issue will acquire investigation, discovery and a considerable amount of time and will disrupt the complex and lengthy trial in progress and cause indeterminable delay. Honeywell employed Atanasoff to assist it in a defense that the patent was derived from Atanasoff. Honeywell made no contention that the patent was a joint one of Atanasoff, Eckert and Mauchly. Honeywell took a neutral position on the intervention.
Judge Larson, after affording the parties a full hearing on the motion for leave to intervene, on August 4, 1971, entered an order denying leave to intervene. The unreported memorandum opinion properly sets out the applicable law and the findings upon which the denial is based. Included in such opinion is the following:
...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
National Association For Advancement of Colored People v. New York 8212 129 27 8212 28, 1973
...will unduly delay or prejudice the adjudication of the rights of the original parties.' 16 Iowa State University Research Foundation v. Honeywell, Inc., 459 F.2d 447, 449 (CA8 1972); Smith Petroleum Service, Inc. v. Monsanto Chemical Co., 420 F.2d 1103, 1115 (CA5 1970); Lumbermens Mutual Ca......
-
United States v. Sellers
... ... in the case at bar does not expressly state any source for the informer's information. The ... here is little more detailed than the one found defective in Spinelli and that the objective ... 1971), and Telephone News Systems, Inc. v. Illinois Bell Telephone Co., 220 F.Supp. 621 ... ...
-
U.S. v. Associated Milk Producers, Inc.
...NAACP v. New York, 413 U.S. 345, 366, 93 S.Ct. 2591, 2603, 37 L.Ed.2d 648, 662 (1973); Iowa State Univ. Research Foundation, Inc. v. Honeywell, Inc., 459 F.2d 447, 449 (8th Cir. 1972). The general rule is that motions for intervention made after entry of final judgment will be granted only ......
-
Com. of Pa. v. Rizzo
...to intervene, NAACP v. New York, supra, 413 U.S. at 367--368, 93 S.Ct. 2591 (37 L.Ed.2d 648); Iowa State University Research Foundation v. Honeywell, Inc., 459 F.2d 447, 449 (8th Cir. 1972), (2) prejudice which resultant delay might cause to other parties, Diaz v. Southern Drilling Corp., 4......