Atiyeh

Plaintiff brought a patent infringement action against defendant which action was subsequently resolved in favor of the plaintiff and judgment entered accordingly. 1 2 The judgment recites in part:

Defendant now brings on a “Motion to Construe the Judgment” in which the Court is requested to determine whether or not either or both of two “reconstructed” devices avoid infringement of the patent in suit. The defendant alleges that it is desirous of avoiding infringement and, more particularly, of avoiding a citation for contempt of Court for a violation of the injunction set forth in the judgment.

Defendant’s motion appears to be novel to the Court, and although counsel for defendant contends that this procedure is usual, no citation of authority for such procedure has been forthcoming as requested by the Court. At the hearing, defendant admitted that in effect what it wants is a declaratory adjudication that the revised structure does not infringe the patent, nor violate the injunctive judgment. Yet, rather than taking the form of an action for declaratory relief, defendant has chosen to present the matter by this summary method. One function of the declaratory judgment act was…