Ruth E. Riley v. Broadway-Hale Stores, Inc., a Corporation (Formerly Broadway Department Store, Inc., a Corporation)

This is an appeal from a summary judgment dismissing appellant’s suit for patent infringement, and from a judgment coincidental]y entered on appellee’s counterclaim declaring the patent to be void.

The subject matter of the suit is appellant’s reissue patent No. 23,167. Her original patent No. 2,465,120 was issued March 22, 1949. It related to foam rubber shoulder pads with recesses of various types generally termed “voids.” The reissue in suit, obtained November 15, 1949, added shoulder pads without voids in Claims 13-16, 18 and 20. Claims for shoulder pads without voids had been made in the application for the original patent, but during the course of the proceedings in the Patent Office had been deliberately and voluntarily abandoned.

In pre-trial proceedings the parties stipulated that certain formulated issues were questions of law to be determined by the court from the pleadings, file wrappers, and other papers of record. One of these was “whether or not the reissue patent in suit No. 23,167 and each of the claims thereof are invalid due to the absence of accident, inadvertence, or mistake warranting the grant of such reissue patent.” Another was “whether or not the added…