Photochart

The three issues to be resolved in this cause are:

1. Is plaintiffs’ method patent No. 2,-382,617 (as reissued #22,881) 1 valid?

2. Did defendants’ activities culminating in the photographing of horse racé finishes at Golden Gate Fields, California, *199 in the autumn of 1947 amount to infringement of plaintiffs’ patent?

3. Did these activities constitute unfair competition ?

1. The Court holds the patent to be invalid. The use of slit photography to determine the speed of moving objects passing a given line was disclosed by foreign patents in the 1920’s. To put slit photography to the related use of determining the order in which objects pass a given line does not, in my opinion, constitute invention. The precise method of focusing the slit camera to adapt it to such use should he readily discernible to an operator reasonably skilled in this field.

2. No unfair competition has been established. Defendant Oswald was employed by plaintiff Photochart to perform routine duties for only a brief period of time. At this time, plaintiffs’ method of photographing the finish of horse races had been fully disclosed in patent applications. Indeed no attempt had been made to keep the…