Perkins

The matter in question here is the validity of a patent on a drive-in theatre. United States Letters Patent No. 1,909,537 was issued on May 16, 1933 to R. M. Hollingshead, Jr. It was subsequently assigned to plaintiff, Park-In Theatres, a New Jersey corporation which brought this suit against two individual and two corporate defendants, all citizens of California, charging infringement of certain claims of the patent and praying for damages and an injunction. On defendants’ motion for summary judgment, the district court held the patent claims invalid, and entered judgment for the defendants. It also awarded them attorney’s fees.

The district court held that the patent claims in suit were invalid and void for lack of invention. There were additional grounds of decision but in our view it is not necessary to consider them.

Preliminarily, although there is no dispute as to the text of the Letters Patent, it has been pointed out by plaintiff, appellant on this appeal, that it does not now appear that the document itself was formally introduced into the record in the district court. Aside from the anomaly of such argument from the party suing on the patent, we note that appellant’s…