Amerio Contact Plate Freezers, Inc. v. Belt-Ice Corporation and Frank W. Knowles

Amerio Contact Plate Freezers, Inc. (Amerio), brought this action to have Knowles United States Patent No. 2,-927,443 declared invalid and not infringed by Amerio. As assignee of competing MacKenzie United States Patent No. 2,697,920, the company also sought an adjudication, under 35 U.S.C. § 291 , concerning interfering patents. Both patents are for machines which automatically freeze packaged foods. By denial and counterclaim the defendants, Frank W. Knowles, applicant for the Knowles patent, and Belt-Ice Corporation (Belt-Ice), assignee of that patent, joined issue on the allegations of the complaint.

After a trial to the court without a jury, judgment was rendered for defendants. Plaintiff appeals specifying as error findings of fact and conclusions of law bearing on all three issues — validity of the Knowles patent, its infringement, and interference between the Knowles and MacKenzie patents. In its briefs on appeal, however, appellant has not dealt with infringement as a separate issue.

Appellant contends that the trial court should have held the Knowles patent invalid on the ground that the Knowles invention was on sale more than one year prior to the date of the…