Jaybee Manufacturing Corporation v. Ajax Hardware Manufacturing Corporation

Action by appellee against appellant for alleged infringement of a design patent. Appellant filed a counterclaim under the declaratory judgments statutes ( 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 , 2202) challenging the validity of the patent and seeking injunctive relief.

Appellant and appellee are California corporations. The design patent in question is an article constructed of metal and shaped for use as a handle or drawer pull. This article has been on the market since October 1957. Application for the patent was originally made by ap-pellee’s assignor and letters patent were duly issued to the appellee for the term of 14 years on April 22, 1958. Appellant assigns error in two respects:

I. We have carefully examined the article which was the subject of the design patent issued to appellee, and the articles which were the subject of the two references cited by the Patent Office examiner against the patent. The articles which were then known to the examiner had little in common with the design in question and it appears that the examiner had a very limited and incomplete record before him at the time he allowed said patent. The evidence is convincing that at least six prior art devices, in some…