Satco, Inc. v. Transequip, Inc.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

These consolidated cases are actions for infringement of Looker’s U.S. Patent No. 3,698,677 entitled “Pallet for Moving and Securing Cargo,” issued on October 17, 1972.

Plaintiff Satco, assignee of the patent, charges that defendant Transequip makes and sells, and defendant Seaboard uses, all-aluminum air cargo pallets which infringe the Looker patent. This court has jurisdiction under the patent laws of the United States, 28 U.S.C. § 1338 .

The Satco pallets manufactured under the Looker patent are about 88" wide and 108" or 125" long and consist of a rectangular all-aluminum center panel about .20" thick riveted to a thicker (.64") aluminum frame containing sockets or slots designed to engage cargo nets or containers. The basic components of the Looker invention— center panel, frame, rivets, sockets — are exemplified in Figures 10, 11, 15, and 25 of the patent. These four drawings are reproduced below:

Because of its relatively thin center panel (74) and thicker frame (72), as shown in Figure 15, Looker’s aluminum pallet, as made by Satco, has two useful interacting characteristics: (1) vertical flexibility and (2) horizontal rigidity. When the pallet…