Vetco Offshore Industries, Inc. v. Rucker Co.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER GRANTING PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT

This is an action by Veteo Offshore Industries (“Veteo”) charging defendant The Rucker Company (“Rucker”) with infringement of the United States Patents Nos. 3,714,995 and Re. (reissue patent) 28,281 covering a drill string motion compensator useful in offshore drilling. Veteo Offshore, Inc., Vetco’s exclusive licensee of the patents in suit, filed a complaint in intervention. Rucker denied infringement in its answer and has asserted counterclaims seeking declaratory relief and damages for unfair competition and violation of the antitrust laws.

Rucker has now moved for partial summary judgment on two grounds: (1) that the invention claimed in the patents was described in printed publications more than one year prior to the application filing date of the patentees, thus rendering the patents void under 35 U.S.C. § 102 (b), and (2) that the claimed subject matter of the patents was obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art, rendering the patents void under 35 U.S.C. § 103 .

I. The Patents in Suit

The claimed invention consists essentially of an apparatus placed within a floating…