Sinclair Carroll Co v. Interchemical Corporation

• Decision Date: 21 May 1945
• Docket Number: No. 656,656
• Citation: 65 S.Ct. 1143,89 L.Ed. 1644,325 U.S. 327
• Parties: SINCLAIR & CARROLL CO., Inc., v. INTERCHEMICAL CORPORATION
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

325 U.S. 327

65 S.Ct. 1143

89 L.Ed. 1644

SINCLAIR & CARROLL CO., Inc.,

v INTERCHEMICAL CORPORATION.

No. 656.

Argued April 5, 1945.

Decided May 21, 1945.

Mr. William D. Mitchell, of New York City, for petitioner.

Mr. Robert W. Byerly, of New York City, for respondent.

Mr. Justice JACKSON divered the opinion of the Court.

This infringement suit was brought by the assignees of a patent on a printing ink. Respondent, Interchemical Corporation, asserts that inks made by the petitioner infringe on claims 3, 10, 11, 12 and 13 of U.S. Patent No. 2,087,190 which was issued to Albert E. Gessler on July 13, 1937. Claim 3, which is typical, is as follows: 'A print- ing ink which is substantially non-drying at ordina y temperatures and dries instantly on heating of the printed matter, consisting of coloring matter dispersed in an organic viscous vehicle consisting of a liquid component and a solid component completely dissolved in the liquid component in sufficient quantity to give the ink the consistency of an ordinary oil-varnish printing ink the solid component being a member of the group consisting of natural and synthetic resins and cellulose compounds, substantially all of the liquid component having a vapor pressure at 20 C. as low as that of diethylene glycol monobutyl ether at 20 C., and the major part of the liquid component having vapor pressure which at 150 C. approximates that of ethyl alcohol at ordinary temperatures and forming a stable solution with the solid component.' In other words, Gessler claims to have invented an ink which will not dry at room temperature but which will dry instantly upon the application of heat after printing. Such an ink is of no particular value in the printing of newspapers or other publications which use absorbent paper. This can be done acceptably with ordinary inks containing linseed oil which is non-volatile at all relevant temperatures. The paper absorbs the ink when one side is printed, and the other side can be printed immediately without danger of smudging.

But the ink disclosed in the patent does have utility in the printing of magazines and other materials which use smooth non-absorbent paper. Since its disclosure by Gessler, it or similar inks which are claimed to infringe, have been used to print 'The New Yorker', 'Collier's', and 'The Saturday Evening Post.' Such publications previously would require considerably more time for printing since the reverse side of the paper which they used could not be printed until the first side was dry. Nor could the sheets be stacked or folded without danger of 'offset' printing. The smooth paper would not absorb the linseed- oil inks, and delay of from one to twenty-four hours was necessary before printing was sufficiently dry to allow the sheets to be worked upon again.

Many efforts were made to eliminate the necessity for delay. The problem was complicated by the fact that the presses used in this kind of printing are equipped with a long series of ink-distributing rollers to spread out the ink to the optimum thin film before it is applied to the type. Hence, when inks with volatile components were used, they would dry on the rollers before they got to the type. And if inks with nonvolatile ingredients—like linseed oil—were used, they would not dry except by slow oxidation. Other approaches to the solution of the problem included the exposure of sheets printed from linseed-oil inks to ozone, but that process was dangerous and not wholly satisfactory. Gessler's ink combines the qualities of an ink which does not dry on the rollers and one which dries quickly after printing when heat is applied to it.

These characteristics of the ink result from the nature of the solvent which is one of its components. Gessler, in his specification, named butyl carbitol (diethylene glycol monobutyl ether is said to be the more accurate scientific term) but that compound was given only as an example, and most of the inks which his company now makes contain 'narrow cuts' of petroleum in place of butyl carbitol. A narrow cut of petroleum consists of only a few kinds of hydrocarbons, and consequently evaporates consistently since each of the hydrocarbons has substantially the same vapor pressure curve. The allegedly infringing inks similarly are made with narrow cuts of petroleum. All of these solvents have the peculiar quality of being relatively non-volatile at ordinary room temperature but highly volatile at a temperature of 150 C., a temperature to which paper can safely be heated without burning. There is no question that inks containing these solvents have enabled magagines to be printed on high-speed ro- tary presses which are furnished with heating devices, without interruption for drying.

The District Court held Gessler's patent invalid because anticipated by the prior art, and held that the petitioner's inks did not infringe. Interchemical Corporation v. Sinclair & Carroll Co., 50 F.Supp. 881. The Circuit Court reversed, holding the patent valid and infringed. Interchemical Corporation v. Sinclair & Carroll Co., 2 Cir., 144 F.2d 842. We granted certiorari. 323 U.S. 705, 65 S.Ct. 278.

There has been a tendency among the lower federal courts in infringement suits to dispose of them where possible on the ground of non-infringement without going into the question of validity of the patent. Irvin v. Buick Motor Co., 8 Cir., 88 F.2d 947, 951; Aero Spark Plug Co. v. B.G. Corp., 2 Cir., 130 F.2d 290; Franklin v. Masonite Corp., 2 Cir., 132 F.2d 800. It has come to be recognized, however, that of the two questions, validity has the greater public importance, Cover v. Schwartz, 2 Cir., 133 F.2d 541, and the District Court in this case followed what will usually be the better practice by inquiring fully into the validity of this patent.

A long line of cases has held it to be an essential requirement for the validity of a patent that the subject-matter display 'invention', 'more ingenuity * * * than the work of a mechanic skilled in the art.' Hicks v. Kelsey, 18 Wall. 670, 21 L.Ed. 852; Slawson v. Grand Street R. Co., 107 U.S. 649, 2 S.Ct. 663, 27 L.Ed. 576; Phillips v. Detroit, 111 U.S. 604, 4 S.Ct. 580, 28 L.Ed. 532; Morris v. McMillin, 112 U.S. 244, 5 S.Ct. 218, 28 L.Ed. 702; Saranac Automatic Machine Corp. v. Wirebounds Patents Co., 282 U.S. 704, 51 S.Ct. 232, 75 L.Ed. 634; Honolulu Oil Corp. v. Halliburton, 306 U.S. 550, 59 S.Ct. 662, 83 L.Ed. 980; Cuno Engineering Corp. v. Automatic Devices Corp., 314 U.S. 84, 90, 62 S.Ct. 37, 40, 86 L.Ed. 58. This test is often difficult to apply; but its purpose is clear. Under this test, some substantial innovation is necessary, an innovation for which society is truly indebted to the efforts of the patentee. Whether or not those efforts are of a special kind does not concern us. The primary purpose of our patent system is not reward of the individual but the advancement of the arts and sciences.¹ Its inducement is directed to disclosure of advances in knowledge which will be beneficial to society; it is not a certificate of merit, but an incentive to disclosure. See Hartford Empire Co. v. United States, 323 U.S. 386, 65 S.Ct. 373, at page 395. Consequently it is not concerned with the quality of the inventor's mind, but with the quality of his product.

The patent in suit was not the product of long and difficult experimentation. Although like other patent cases, this has an extensive record, it is hard to see wherein Gessler's invention consists. In 1930, he was asked to make an odorless ink, and he selected from a catalog of a chemical manufacturer three solvents which the catalog indicated to be relatively odorless. Their vapor pressures, that is, their rates of evaporation at various temperatures, were also listed. He tried inks made with each of the compounds as a solvent and decided that butyl carbitol was the most satisfactory, since it did not dry while on the rollers, at ordinary temperature.

The company which had requested the odorless ink, however, found that it was unsatisfactory for other reasons and, a ter...