United States v. Line Materials Co

Decision Date08 March 1948
Docket NumberNo. 8,8
Citation333 U.S. 287,68 S.Ct. 550,92 L.Ed. 701
PartiesUNITED STATES v. LINE MATERIALS CO. et al. Re
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Mr. Frederick Bernays Wiener, of Providence, R.I., for appellant.

Mr. John Lord O'Brian, of Washington, D.C., for appellees.

Mr. Albert R. Connelly, of New York City, for appellee, Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

Appeal from the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

Mr. Justice REED delivered the opinion of the Court.

The United States sought an injunction under §§ 1 and 4 of the Sherman Act1 in the District Court against continuance of violations of that Act by an allegedly unlawful combination or conspiracy between appellees, through contracts, to restrain interstate trade in certain patented electrical devices. The restraint alleged arose from a cross-license arrangement between the patent owners, Line Material Company and Southern States Equipment Corporation, to fix the sale price of the devices

to which arrangement the other appellees, licensees to make and vend, adhered by supplemental contracts. 2

The District Court, 64 F.Supp. 970, dismissed the complaint as to all defendants upon its conclusion that the rule of United States v. General Electric Co., 272 U.S. 476, 47 S.Ct. 192, 71 L.Ed. 362, was controlling. That case approved as lawful a patentee's license to make and vend which required the licensee in its sales of the patented devices to conform to the licensor's sale price schedule. Appeal was taken directly to this Court, 32 Stat. 823, 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 28, 29, and probable jurisdiction noted here. 67 S.Ct. 113. We have jurisdiction.3

I. The Facts.

The challenged arrangements enter r ound three product patents, which are useful in protecting an electric circuit from the dangers incident to a short circuit or other overload. Two of them are dropout fuse cutouts and the third is a housing suitable for use with any cutout. Dropout fuse cutouts may be used without any housing. The District Court found that 40.77% of all cutouts manufactured and sold by these defendants were produced under these patents. This was substantially all the dropout fuse cutouts made in the United States. There are competitive devices that perform the same functions manufactured by appellees and others under different patents than those here involved.

The dominant patent, No. 2,150,102, in the field of dropout fuse cutouts with double jointed hinge construction was issued March 7, 1939, to the Southern States Equipment Corporation, assignee, on an application of George N. Lemmon. 4 This patent reads upon a patent No. 2,176,227, reissued December 21, 1943, Re. 22,412, issued October 17, 1939 to Line Material Company, assignee, on an application by Schultz and Steinmayer.5

The housing patent No. 1,781,876, reissued March 31, 1931, as Re. 18,020, and again February 5, 1935, as Re. 19,449, was issued November 18, 1930 to Line, assignee, on an application by W. D. Kyle. The Kyle patent covers a wet-process porcelain box with great dielectric strength, which may be economically constructed and has been commercially successful. We give no weight to the presence of the Kyle patent in the licenses.

The applications for the Lemmon and Schultz patents were pending simultaneously. They were declared in interference and a contest resulted. The decision of the Patent Office, awarding dominant claims to Southern and subservient claims to Line on the Lemmon and the Schultz applications made it impossible for any manufacturer to use both patents when later issued without some cross-licensing arrangement. Cf. Temco Electric Motor Co. v. Apco Mfg. Co., 275 U.S. 319, 328, 48 S.Ct. 170, 173, 72 L.Ed. 298. Only when both patents could be lawfully used by a single maker could the public or the patentees obtain the full benefit of the efficiency and economy of the inventions. Negotiations were started by Line which eventuated in the challenged arrangements.

The first definitive document was a bilateral, royalty-free, cross-license agreement of May 23, 1938, between Southern and Line after the patent office award but before the patents issued. This, so far as here pertinent, was a license to Southern by Line to make and vend the prospective Schultz patented appart us with the exclusive

right to grant licenses or sublicenses to others. Line also granted Southern the right to make and vend but not to sublicense the Kyle patent. Southern licensed Line to make and vend but not to sublicense the prospective Lemmon patent for defined equipment which included the Schultz apparatus. Sublicense royalties and expenses were to be divided between Line and Southern. Although a memorandum of agreement of January 12, 1938, between the parties had no such requirement, Line agreed to sell equipment covered by the Southern patent at prices not less than those fixed by Southern. Southern made the same agreement for equipment covered solely by the Line patent. No requirement for price limitation upon sales by other manufacturers under license was included.

Six of the other manufacturers6 here involved were advised by Line by letter, dated June 13, 1938, that Southern had authority to grant licenses under the Schultz prospective patent. On October 3, 1938, Kearney took from Southern a license to practice the Lemmon and Schultz patents. The license had a price, term and condition of sale clause, governed by Southern's prices, which bound Kearney to maintain the prices on its sales of devices covered by the patents. On October 7, 1938, the five other manufacturers mentioned above were offered by Southern the same contract as the standard licensor's agreement. The Kearney contract was discussed at Chicago in October, 1938, by all of the above manufacturers except Railway. Pacific also participated. It never was enforced. The first patent involved in this case did not issue until March, 1939. Those manufacturers who were making double jointed open and enclosed dropout cutouts wanted to and did explore co-operatively

(F.F. 15) the validity of the patents. They failed to find a satisfactory basis for attack. They were faced with infringement suits. Other reasons developed for the refusal of the six manufacturers to accept the Kearney form contracts (F.F. 16 & 17) unnecessary to detail here. One reason was that the prospective sublicensees preferred Line to Southern as licensor because of the fact that Line, as owner and manufacturer, would license the Kyle patent. New arrangements were proposed for the licensees. After mutual discussion between the licensees and patentees, these new agreements were submitted. A finding to which no objection is made states:

'On October 24, 1939, General Electric, Westinghouse, Kearney, Matthews, Schweitzer and Conrad, and Railway met with Line in Chicago and jointly discussed drafts of the proposed license agreements under the Lemmon, Schultz, and Kyle patents. Thereafter, identical sets of revised licenses were sent by Line to General Electric, Westinghouse, Matthews, Schweitzer and Conrad, and the attorneys for Railway and Kearney.'

A form for a proposed licensing agreement that contained the essential elements of the price provision ultimately included in the licenses had been circulated among prospective licensees by Line by letters under date of October 6, 1969.

To meet the various objections of the future licensees, the agreement of May 23, 1938, between Southern and Line was revised as of January 12, 1940. Except for the substitution of Line for Southern as licensor of other manufacturers, it follows generally the form of the earlier agreement. There were royalty free cross-licenses of the Schultz and Lemmon patents substantially as before. Line was given the exclusive right to grant sublicenses to

others for Lemmon. 7 Southern retained the privilege, royalty free, of making and vending the Kyle patent, also. Southern bound itself to maintain prices, so long as Line required other licensees to do so.8 Even if it be assumed

that the proper interpretation of the Line-Southern agreement permitted Southern to manufacture under its on Lemmon patent without price control, the practical result is that Southern does have its price for its products fixed because the only commercially successful fabrication is under a combination of the Lemmon and Schultz patents. Findings of Fact 7 and 10.

The price maintenance feature was reflected in all the licenses to make and vend granted by Line, under the Line-Southern contract, to the other appellees. There were variations in the price provisions that are not significant for the issues of this case. A fair example appears below.9 The execution of these sublicenses by the

other appellees, except Johnson and Royal,10 followed within a year. Licenses were executed by the two on June 15, 1943, and March 24, 1944, respectively. After August 1, 1940, since a number of the appellees had executed the license contracts, two consultations of the licensees and the patentees were held to classify the products of the various licensees in comparison with the licensor's devices.11 The trial judge found that prices were not discussed. These were fixed by Line without discussion with or advice from any other appellee. There can be no doubt, however, that each licensee knew of the proposed price provisions in the licenses of other licensees from the circulation of proposed from of license on October 6, 1939, subsequent consultations among the licensees and an escrow agreement, fulfilled July 11, 1940. That

agreement was entered into after General Electric took its license and required for fulfillmet the acceptance of identical licenses by Matthews, Kearney and Railway. The licenses that were the subject of the escrow contained the price provisions of General Electric's license. This awareness by each signer of the price provisions in prior contracts is conceded by appellees' brief. A price schedule became effective January...

To continue reading

Request your trial
134 cases
  • Shapiro v. General Motors Corp.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Maryland
    • 29 Mayo 1979
    ... ... GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION et al ... Civ. No. Y-71-1329 ... United" States District Court, D. Maryland ... May 29, 1979. 472 F. Supp. 637 \xC2" ... would undoubtedly raise prices for defendants, and, just incidently, line plaintiffs' pockets ...         Plaintiffs clearly want to ... There have been no such incriminating materials in this case ...         Another difference from Parke, Davis, ... ...
  • In re Cases
    • United States
    • California Supreme Court
    • 7 Mayo 2015
  • United States v. Standard Oil Co.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of California
    • 28 Junio 1948
    ... ... and commerce in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1 , and substantially lessen competition and tend to create a monopoly in a line of commerce, in violation of Section 3 of the Clayton Act. 2 The Government asks us to declare the exclusive supply provisions in the contracts and ... ...
  • Intellectual Ventures I LLC v. Capital One Fin. Corp.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Maryland
    • 30 Noviembre 2017
  • Request a trial to view additional results
1 firm's commentaries
23 books & journal articles
  • Patents
    • United States
    • ABA Antitrust Library Model Jury Instructions in Civil Antitrust Cases
    • 8 Diciembre 2016
    ...licenses restrict the permitted uses to particular applications or fields of industry. 12. See, e.g. , United States v. Line Material Co., 333 U.S. 287, 356 (1948) (providing examples of cross-licenses); U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE & FED. TRADE COMM’N, ANTITRUST GUIDELINES FOR THE LICENSING OF IN......
  • The United States of America
    • United States
    • ABA Antitrust Library Antitrust Issues in International Intellectual Property Licensing Transactions
    • 1 Enero 2012
    ...AND COMPETITION REPORT, supra note 117, at 63; see also IP GUIDELINES, supra note 116, § 3.4; United States v. Line Material Co., 333 U.S. 287, 315 (1948). accompanied the cross-licenses. 309 In United States v. Line Material Co ., 310 for example, two manufacturers of devices to prevent sh......
  • Table of Cases
    • United States
    • ABA Antitrust Library Handbook on Antitrust in Technology Industries
    • 5 Diciembre 2017
    ...Decision (Oct. 10, 2014), 232 LifeUniverse, Inc. v. MySpace, Inc. 304 F. App’x 554 (9th Cir. 2008), 300 Line Material; United States v., 333 U.S. 287 (1948), 93, 167 Liveuniverse, Inc. v. Myspace, Inc., 2007 WL 6865852 (2007), 295, 300 Loew’s Inc.; United States v., 371 U.S. 38 (1962), 152,......
  • Intellectual Property and Standard Setting
    • United States
    • ABA Antitrust Library Handbook on the Antitrust Aspects of Standard Setting
    • 1 Enero 2011
    ...and Package Licensing , 50 J. PAT. & TRADEMARK OFF. SOC’Y. 723 (1968). But see HOVENKAMP ET AL., supra note 32, § 34.2c at 34-6. 216. 333 U.S. 287 (1948). 217. Id. at 314-15. 218. 438 U.S. 422 (1978). 219. 342 U.S. 371 (1952). 220. 374 U.S. 174 (1963). Intellectual Property and Standard Set......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT