Clarence H. Stevenson, Iii, an Individual and F M C Corporation, a Corporation v. Diebold, Incorporated, a Corporation

Diebold appeals from a judgment holding certain claims of appellees’ patent valid and infringed and awarding dam ages of $404,470.50 plus interest for the infringement. The patent at issue is No. 2,815,846, owned by appellee Stevenson and exclusively licensed to appellee FMC. We reverse.

The invention covered by the Stevenson patent relates to feeding and orienting devices for automatic pallet loading machines. The invention seeks to position articles such as cartons moving on a conveyor so as automatically to stack them on a pallet in a predetermined interlocking pattern. The interlocking pattern promotes stability of the pallet load and is achieved by placing layers of articles adjacent to one another with the faces of the articles in a given layer turned at 90 degrees from the article faced in neighboring layers, much as bricks or stones are arranged in a good piece of masonry.

Before trial, Diebold conceded that claims 1, 2, 4-6, 9-11, 13-16, and 18-20 of the Stevenson patent were infringed “if such claims be valid.” In appealing from the trial court’s decision that the. patent was valid, Diebold makes only the, contention that the invention was obvious within the standards…