Kori Corp. v. Wilco Marsh Buggies and Draglines, Civ. A. No. 79-3636.
| Decision Date | 30 August 1982 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 79-3636. |
| Citation | 217 USPQ 1302,561 F. Supp. 512 |
| Parties | KORI CORPORATION and Huey J. Rivet v. WILCO MARSH BUGGIES AND DRAGLINES, INC., John M. Wilson, Sr., Dean R. Wilson, and Robert J. Wilson, Jr. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
Thomas S. Keaty, New Orleans, La., for plaintiff.
Nathan Greenberg, Gretna, La., for defendants.
This case was tried before the Court, sitting without a jury, on February 2, 1981 through February 6, 1981. Oral arguments were heard on February 20, 1981. The case was then taken under submission. After careful consideration of the evidence adduced at trial, the arguments of counsel, the submitted memoranda and materials, the relevant facts and the applicable law, the Court, pursuant to the provisions of Fed.R.Civ.P. 52, hereby makes the following FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW.
The complaint in this action, filed September 20, 1979, alleges that:
(a) defendant Wilco Marsh Buggies and Draglines, Inc. is making, using, and selling "Amphibious Marsh Crafts" in the Eastern District of Louisiana in infringement of plaintiffs' United States Patent No. 3,842,785; and
(b) defendant Wilco Marsh Buggies and Draglines, Inc., through defendants, John M. Wilson, Sr., Dean R. Wilson, and Robert J. Wilson, Jr., obtained by unfair business practices confidential information and trade secrets pertaining to the manufacture and wholesale, retail, and use of the "Amphibious Marsh Craft" patented by Rivet U.S. Letters Patent 3,842,785 (hereinafter Rivet '785 patent).
The complaint asks judgment of Seven Million and no/100 Dollars ($7,000,000.00), treble damages and interest, attorneys' fees, all costs and disbursements of the proceedings, all other just and equitable relief, injunctive relief against patent infringement and engaging in unfair trade practices, and a jury trial.
Defendants answer, inter alia that:
(a) the patent in suit is invalid because it was issued in violation of the requirements of 35 U.S.C. §§ 101, 102(a) and 102(b);
(b) defendants do not infringe the patent in suit; and
(c) defendants did not obtain by unfair business practices confidential information and trade secrets belonging to plaintiffs pertaining to the subject matter of the patent in suit.
Defendants counterclaim against plaintiffs alleging the following:
(a) the patent in suit was fraudulently procured in violation of 15 U.S.C. 1 et seq.;
(b) by attempting to assert rights under an illegal patent, plaintiffs have violated the anti-trust laws;
(c) the illegal actions of the plaintiffs have damaged defendants in the amount of $1,500,000.00, which defendants ask to be trebled pursuant to the anti-trust laws; and
(d) the allegations of obtaining trade secrets by unfair business practices have libeled defendants and entitled them to damages in accordance with law.
Trial by jury has been waived by plaintiffs and defendants.
Plaintiff Huey J. Rivet is the inventor named in the patent in suit.
Plaintiff Louis Woodson, by written instruments dated January 15, 1978 and November 11, 1979, is named as the exclusive licensee under the patent in suit and the assignee of an undivided one-half interest in the same patent, respectively. Both documents have been recorded in the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Plaintiff Kori Corporation (hereinafter Kori), a Louisiana corporation, is named as a non-exclusive licensee under the patent in suit.
Defendant Wilco Marsh Buggies and Draglines, Inc. (hereinafter Wilco) is a Louisiana corporation.
Defendants John M. Wilson, Sr., Dean R. Wilson, and Robert J. Wilson, Jr. are the sole shareholders of defendant Wilco.
The Rivet '785 patent was issued on October 22, 1974 to Huey J. Rivet for an invention entitled "Amphibious Marsh Craft" and will expire October 22, 1991.
The Rivet '785 patent concerns an improved pontoon-type endless track vehicle which will work in a swamp environment, carrying heavy loads up to sixty tons over tree stumps and other foreign objects.
The patent has never been adjudicated.
The patent contains seven claims. Claim 1 describes an amphibious craft comprising: "a pair of space elongated pontoons, each pontoon comprising a primary buoyant closed wall structure, having a top and bottom and having a substantially uniform vertical height over at least half its length measured from rear to front; vertical bulkheads spaced along the length of said pontoons adding rigidity to the pontoon and defining a plurality of separate buoyant chambers within the pontoon; a plurality of spaced I-beams welded to the bottom of the pontoons transversely of the pontoons between said vertical bulkheads over the length of said pontoon; at least two primary channel means on the top and bottom of the pontoon; endless drive chains carried in each of said channel means; channel shaped drive cleats secured to and extending between said chains; plastic support blocks secured to the web of said cleats intermediate the drive chains and positioned to bear against the top and bottom of each pontoon; drive means for driving the endless chains; and I-beam spacer means welded to said pontoons at the top and rigidly interconnecting said pontoons fore and aft in substantially parallel relation."
Claims 2 to 5 of the patent in suit depend from claim 1 and contain all of its limitations.
In addition to the limitations of claim 1, claim 2 contains further limitation of requiring a: "secondary channel means intermediate said primary channel means on the pontoons running longitudinally along the top and bottom of each pontoon with the flanges directed outwardly, the area between said flanges on the channels being filled with a low coefficient of friction plastic material against which the plastic support blocks on said cleats will bear and slide."
In addition to the limitations of claims 1 and 2, claim 3 contains the further limitation of requiring "said plastic support blocks are of a low coefficient of friction plastic."
In addition to the limitations of claims 1, 2 and 3, claim 4 contains the further limitation of requiring "endless drive chain sprockets secured to shafts mounted proximate the top of each pontoon in a free floating bearing assembly said endless drive chains meshing with said sprockets and being drivingly connected to said drive means."
In addition to the limitations of claims 1, 2, 3 and 4, claim 5 contains the further limitation of requiring that "said drive means is a separate hydraulic motor for driving the endless tracks of each pontoon."
Claim 6 is an independent claim which describes for use with an amphibious craft having a pair of spaced elongated pontoons over which pass endless track propulsion members having channel shaped driving cleats with the side flanges directed away from the pontoons: "an anti-friction load transfer system comprising at least one longitudinal channel member secured to the underside of the pontoon with its flanges directed away from the pontoons, an anti-friction load transfer system comprising at least one longitudinal channel member secured to the underside of the pontoon with its flanges directed away from the pontoon, plastic filler between said flanges, and plastic support blocks secured to the back side of said cleats over the plastic filler in the longitudinal channels on the underside of the pontoons to provide a local bearing surface having a minimum coefficient of friction between the pontoon and driving cleats."
In addition to the limitations of claim 6, claim 7 contains the further limitation of requiring "the plastic filler and plastic blocks are of the group of epoxy, teflon, nylon and polypropylene."
The first amphibious craft of commercial utility in the marshes was patented by Frank Reynolds as U.S. Patent No. 2,546,523, issued August 20, 1947.
In the 1940's and early 1950's, "Reynolds-type" marsh crafts were used solely for seismic work which included light work, such as the carrying of seismic survey crews into the Louisiana marsh in their hunt for oil and gas.
During this same period, Hershal A. "Pug" Morris and Douglas T. Ritchie were among the early commercial users of marsh craft beginning the industry in Louisiana by manufacturing, leasing, and using devices based upon the Reynolds patent.
A marsh craft was first used in pipeline construction in the early 1950's by Ritchie who placed a small dragline on a set of Reynolds-type pontoons and began doing light pipeline work in the treeless Louisiana marsh.
The equipment produced by Ritchie and the equipment of similar marsh craft manufacturers, contractors, and users were restricted solely to the treeless marsh environment, because cyprus and tree stumps were very dangerous for the Reynolds-type marsh craft or "marsh buggies."
None of the crafts manufactured by Ritchie from the 1940's to the early 1970's was capable of working in treed swamp and supporting heavy uppers which are used in pipeline construction.
In about the early 1950's, Ritchie developed a marsh machine. He applied for a patent for that machine, but the patent application was denied.
In attempting to solve the problems posed by stumpy swamp lands, Ritchie built smaller marsh machines and installed a backhoe on his machines. Even these machines, however, were unsuccessful in traversing tree stumped marsh lands.
From the late 1940's, starting with the invention of the Reynolds marsh craft, until the early 1970's, the oil and gas industry sought to devise an effective method for digging a pipeline ditch in a treed swamp region.
During this period, conventional earth moving...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Century Wrecker Corp. v. ER Buske Mfg. Co., Inc.
...vacated and remanded for clarification of damage amount, 807 F.2d 1567 (Fed. Cir.1986); Kori Corp. v. Wilco Marsh Buggies and Draglines, Inc., 561 F.Supp. 512, 533 (E.D.La. 1981), aff'd, 761 F.2d 649 (Fed.Cir.), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 902, 106 S.Ct. 230, 88 L.Ed.2d 229 (1985) (enhanced dama......
-
Amstar Corp. v. Envirotech Corp.
...929, 941 (Fed.Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 871, 105 S.Ct. 220, 83 L.Ed.2d 150 (1984), and Kori Corp. v. Wilco Marsh Buggies & Draglines, Inc., 561 F.Supp. 512, 217 U.S.P.Q. 1302 (E.D.La.1982), aff'd 761 F.2d 649, 225 U.S.P.Q. 985 (Fed.Cir.1985), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 902, 106 S.Ct. 230, 8......
-
Read Corp. v. Portec, Inc.
...(Defendant "can withstand some increase in damages, but not treble damages."); Kori Corp. v. Wilco Marsh Buggies and Draglines, Inc., 561 F.Supp. 512, 533, 217 USPQ 1302, 1312 (E.D.La.1982) (Exemplary damages "should not unduly prejudice the defendants' non-infringing business."), aff'd, 76......
-
Probatter Sports, LLC v. Sports Tutor, Inc.
...enhanced damages. Read , 970 F.2d at 827. In discussing this factor, the Court cited to Kori Corp. v. Wilco Marsh Buggies and Draglines, Inc. , 561 F. Supp. 512, 533 (E.D. La. 1982), aff'd , 761 F.2d 649 (Fed. Cir.), cert. denied , 474 U.S. 902, 106 S.Ct. 230, 88 L.Ed.2d 229 (1985) for the ......