United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Leitch Mfg. Co. v. Barber Co., 302 U.S. 458 (1938)

Leitch Manufacturing Co. v. Barber Company

No. 208

Argued December 14, 1937

Decided January 3, 1938

302 U.S. 458

Syllabus

1. The owner of a patent for a process for curing concrete by the use of a spray of bituminous emulsion, an unpatented article of commerce, cannot enjoin as a contributory infringer a competing manufacturer who sold bituminous emulsion to a road contractor who used it in practicing the patented method. Pp. 302 U. S. 460, 302 U. S. 463.

Page 302 U. S. 459

2. A patent may not be used as a means of obtaining a limited monopoly of unpatented material. Carbice Corp. v American Patents Corp., 283 U. S. 27. P. 302 U. S. 463.

3. The rule of the Carbice case, supra, is applicable whether the patent be for a machine, a product, or a process, and whatever the nature of the device by which the owner of the patent seeks to effect such unauthorized extension of the monopoly. P. 302 U. S. 463.

89 F.2d 960 reversed.

Certiorari, post, p. 673, to review a decree which, upon appeal from a decree dismissing the bill in a suit for contributory infringement of a patent, 14 F.Supp. 212, directed the District Court to enter a decree adjudging the claims in issue valid and infringed and awarding an accounting.