Vincent I. Whitman v. Walt Disney Productions, Inc., a Corporation Walter E. Disney, an Individual John Doe One

On March 30, 1937, there was issued to plaintiff United States Letters Patent No. 2,075,684. This invention was a composite system of photography and particularly a motion picture photography wherein a portion of a still background scene pictorially recorded is photographed with superimposed visual actions which occur in the foreground.

Prior to 1939, plaintiff saw the motion picture “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” produced by these defendants, and determined that the process used in producing it infringed his patent.

From the stipulation of facts in this case we find (1) that Civil Action 5/478 was filed on September 30, 1939, in the District Court for the Southern Division of New York, involving the same plaintiff and same defendants as in the present action (with some additional defendants), and constituting the same claim of infringement of said Patent No. 2,075,-684 (hereinafter called the Whitman Patent) as is here claimed. The New York action was dismissed by an order of that court dated December 15, 1939, consented to by plaintiff; (2) that Civil Action No. 947 B-H was filed on May 8, 1940, in the District Court for the Southern District of California involving the…