United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Muncie Gear Works, Inc. v. Outboard Marine Co., 315 U.S. 759 (1942)

Muncie Gear Works, Inc. v. Outboard Marine & Manufacturing Co.

No. 323

Argued February 12, 1942

Decided March 30, 1942

315 U.S. 759

Syllabus

1. The Court considered as a reason for the granting of certiorari to review a decision of a Circuit Court of Appeals sustaining claim of a patent as to which there was no conflict of decision, the fact that the patent dominated a substantial portion of an industry so concentrated in one circuit that a conflict of decision was unlikely. P. 315 U. S. 765.

2. Claims 11, 12, 13 and 14 of Johnson patent No. 1,716,962, for an alleged invention to overcome cavitation in the operation of relatively large and fast outboard motors, held invalid under R.S. § 4866, because of public use, or sale, of devices embodying the alleged invention, more than two years before the first disclosure thereof to the Patent Office. P. 315 U. S. 768.

3. Upon the record in this case, held that a decision by this Court of the question under R.S. § 4866 was not foreclosed by the obscurity of its presentation in the courts below. P. 315 U. S. 768.

119 F.2d 404 reversed.

Certiorari 314 U.S. 594, to review a judgment which reversed a judgment of the District Court, and held the claims of a patent valid and infringed.