Reeves Instrument Corporation and Dynamics Corporation of America v. Beckman Instruments, Incorporated

Beckman Instruments appeals a decision of the district court which held that its analog computer cheek circuit infringed claims 7, 8, and 13 of U. S. Patent No. 2,967,997. We affirm.

I. THE PATENT IN SUIT.

U. S. Patent No. 2,967,997 (hereinafter the “McCoy patent”) was issued to Raw-ley D. McCoy on January 10, 1961 as the result of an application filed April 20, 1955. All right, title and interest in the McCoy patent has been assigned to ap-pellee Dynamics Corporation of America, of which appellee Reeves Instrument is a division.

The McCoy patent is entitled “Method and Apparatus for Checking Electronic Analog Computers” and deals generally with the problem of checking the operation of the numerous elements of an analog computer prior to utilization of the computer to solve complex industrial problems of a generally mathematical nature.

Electronic analog computers were initially developed following World War II and played an important role in the design of complex aircraft, weapons systems and space vehicles. Such computers are designed to solve a variety of problems by performing the mathematical operations required to analyze complex physical relationships.

Since a general…