Jack Winter, Inc. v. Koratron Co.
Opinion
lead Opinion
Doyle, J.
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
I.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PATENT PROCESS AND THE PLEETSET PROCESS
The above group of cases which have common questions of fact, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1407 , have been transferred to the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California for consolidated or coordinated pretrial proceedings. The undersigned has been designated by the Panel to conduct the proceedings.
At the center of all of the controversies is Koratron’s patent, U. S. Patent No. 2,974,432, the so-called perma-press patent. Involved are a wide variety of suits including actions seeking to declare the patent invalid, actions to enforce license and royalty agreements and antitrust and patent misuse actions.
In the present motions the parties adversary to Koratron (sometimes called Koret, the predecessor of Koratron) seek partial summary judgment (pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules) on the following grounds:
The adversaries contend, despite the complexity of the issues, that there is no dispute as to any material issue of fact and that summary determinations are, therefore, proper.