United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Duplate Corp. v. Triplex Safety Glass Co., 298 U.S. 448 (1936)

Duplate Corporation v. Triplex Safety Glass Co.

Nos. 767 and 768

Argued May 1, 4, 1936

Decided May 18, 1936

298 U.S. 448

Syllabus

1. In an accounting to a patent owner by an infringer who acted in good faith, factory losses incurred by the infringer as a necessary or normal incident to the completion of sales effected at a gain are deducted from the profits. P. 298 U. S. 452.

2. In reckoning the profits made by the infringers in this case from sales of patented shatter-proof glass, allowance was properly made for the cost of labor and material wasted without fault in the manufacturing process, but no allowance should have been made for the cost of labor and material that entered into the manufacture of glass that was returned by customers for defects discovered after sale. Crosby Valve Co. v. Safety Valve Co., 141 U. S. 441, considered. Pp. 298 U. S. 453, 298 U. S. 455.

3. In such an accounting, fabricated materials sold by one infringer to another and used by the other in completing the infringing product should be set down at cost of manufacture. So held where the contributing infringer could not have sold the materials in his business, and allowance of a higher value would have meant a profit to him from his own wrongdoing. P. 298 U. S. 456.

4. In such an accounting, an infringer cannot have compensation, in the nature of royalties, for savings effected by use of his own patented devices in manufacturing the infringing product. P. 298 U. S. 457.

Page 298 U. S. 449

5. Where some sales of a patented product by an infringer result in profit and others in loss, the patent owner is entitled to the profit undiminished by the loss. Pp. 298 U. S. 452, 298 U. S. 458.

6. Upon such an accounting, where it is impracticable to ascertain the specific costs of operation attributable to sales made by the infringers at known prices, average cost is to be compare with the specific prices, not the average cost with average prices. P. 298 U. S. 458.

7. Where damages for infringements of patent are awarded upon the reasonable royalty basis, interest, as a general rule, should run from the date when the damages are liquidated, rather than the date of the last infringement. P. 298 U. S. 458.

81 F.2d 352 aff'd with modifications.

Certiorari, 297 U.S. 702, to review two decrees entered by the Circuit Court of Appeals on cross-appeals taken from a decree of the District Court upon an accounting following an injunction against infringements of the respondent's patent. The opinions of both courts on the question of infringement are reported in 42 F.2d, pp. 737 and 739. For the opinion of the District Court on the issue of the accounting, see 10 F.Supp. 420.