Berkeley Pump Co. v. Jacuzzi Bros., Inc

Appellant, Berkeley Pump Company (herein Berkeley) and appellee, Jacuzzi Bros, (herein Jacuzzi) are both California corporations engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling motor driven water pumps for use in so-called “deep wells” on small farms. The patent in suit is the property of Berkeley, being Letters Patent U. S. No. 2,280,626, issue date April 21, 1942.

Berkeley brought suit against Jacuzzi, charging the latter with infringement of the Berkeley Pump device, and demanding damages and reasonable attorney’s fees. At the conclusion of the plaintiff's case in chief the lower court directed the jury to return a verdict in favor of Jacuzzi. Judgment was entered on this verdict and this appeal followed.

In its answer to the Berkeley suit, Jacuzzi, among other matters, put the validity of the patent in suit in issue by alleging that the Berkeley pump was not an invention and that the Letters Patent were invalid; that the pump alleged to be patented did not require the, or any, exercise of the inventive faculty; that the claimed patent was invalid because anticipated in every material and substantial part as disclosed and described in prior letters patent of the United…