Dymo Industries, Inc. v. Com-Tech, Inc., Dymo Industries, Inc. v. Avery Products Corporation

Dymo Industries, Inc. herein appeals from two judgments rendered by the District Court for the Central District of California in related patent actions. The two suits were consolidated for trial concerning the validity of the patents in question. No. 21533 — an infringement action — was heard by the district court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1338 (a), 1400 (b) (1964), and No. 21534 was a declaratory judgment action authorized by 28 U.S.C. § 2201 (1964). Our jurisdiction rests on 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1964).

I. BACKGROUND OF THE APPEAL

Three patents are in issue, all of which were originally issued to D. W. Souza and are presently owned by Dymo. Each of the patents relates to an embossable plastic tape on which characters may be stamped to create what have become relatively familiar plastic labels. The labels may be produced individually and inexpensively by use of a hand embossing machine, and have therefore become rather widely used by small businesses and private individuals as well as by industry in general. The distinctive feature of the tapes is that, when they are embossed, the characters thus stamped upon them take on a white color, contrasting with the original dark shades of…