Kemart Corp. v. Printing Arts Research Laboratories, Inc.
Opinion
Opinion
Bone, J.
Appellant brought an action against appellee for a declaratory judgment establishing that appellee’s Letters Patent No, 2,191,939 were invalid and not infringed by appellant. Appellee filed a counterclaim charging infringement of all 12 claims of the patent except claims 5 and 7 and demanding an injunction and an accounting for profits and damages. On trial the lower court found that all claims of the patent were valid and infringed except claims 5 and 7, which were found to be not infringed. A declaratory judgment was entered accordingly and appellant was enjoined from further infringement. This appeal followed.
Appellee’s patent relates to an improved process for making halftone printing plates for reproduction of wash drawings in printed matter. A wash drawing is an original art work prepared by an artist on drawing paper using black water color paint diluted with water to produce various tones of gray when applied to the paper with a brush. Those portions of the work where paint has been applied are called tone areas. The parts where the white paper has been left untouched are called the highlight areas. The finished wash drawing is called “copy.”