Hunter Douglas Corp. v. Lando Products, Inc.

This is a patent infringement action in which the defendant has set up the- defenses of invalidity of the patent and non-infringement and, in. addition, has counterclaimed for damages for alleged misuse of the patent through tie-in sales in violation of the Sherman Anti-trust Act, 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 1-7 , 15 note, and the Clayton Act, 15 U.S. C.A. § 12 et seq.

Both parties manufacture thin metal strip of the type used for Venetian blind slats. It appears from the record that such strip is made from steel or a hard aluminum alloy, the latter being the most in demand, and that this material is furnished to the manufacturers in large sheets considerably thicker than the finished product. This necessitates shearing into strips of the desired width and then passing such strips .through a rolling mill in order to reduce the thickness. As the rolling proceeds the material work hardens and the minute edge irregularities caused by the shearing tend to develop into cracks that make the finished strip unusable until such edge cracks have been removed. This was usually done by trimming which resulted in the waste of some material. To meet this problem plaintiff’s assignors tried removing the…