Corning Glass Works v. Anchor Hocking Glass Corp.
Corning Glass Works v. Anchor Hocking Glass Corp.
Opinion of the Court
FINDINGS OF FACT and CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
This patent infringement action having been tried upon the facts by the Court without a jury, and the Court having heard the evidence and examined the record and exhibits in evidence, the Court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law on the issue of infringement:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. Plaintiff, Corning Glass Works, is a New York corporation, having its office and principal place of business in Corning, New York; and defendant, Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation, is a Delaware corporation, and a citizen and resident of the District of Delaware.
2. The Complaint was filed November 8, 1963, charging defendant with infringement of Stookey patent No. 2,920,-971, which issued to plaintiff January 12, 1960, and is still owned by plaintiff. Plaintiff relies on product claims 12-15 and 19-21 and on method claims 1-3, 5 and 9-11 of its patent in suit; product claims 12 and 21 and method claim 5 are typical. Infringement of the patent in suit is alleged to arise out of defendant’s manufacture and sale from July, 1963 of its RP-31 COOKWARE, and by
3. There is no dispute as to jurisdiction and venue of the original action which is based upon 28 U.S.C. §§ 1338(a) and 1400(b); there is no dispute about ownership of the patent in suit; and the validity of the patent is no longer in issue. See Corning Glass Works v. Anchor Hocking Glass Corp., 374 F.2d 473 (3rd Cir. 1967).
4. Product claims 12 and 21 of the patent in suit
Method claim 5 of the patent
(1) melting a glass-making composition having the oxide analysis specified above,
(2) cooling this melt to form a glass, i. e., without crystallization,
(3) exposing this glass to a temperature above the annealing temperature of the glass but below its maximum nucleation temperature for a substantial period of time, and
(4) increasing the temperature of the glass to a higher temperature at which crystals are formed on the nuclei developed in step 3, and holding the glass at this higher temperature until the product is 40%-60% or more crystalline. Corning Glass Works v. Anchor Hocking Glass Corp., supra at 477-478.
One of the basic features of the Stookey invention is the formation of the right kind of glass (which can be melted, formed and shaped according to known glass working techniques), heating the formed glass articles to a temperature at which large quantities of very small nuclei are formed (without crystals) throughout the glass body and only then increasing the temperature to allow crystals to grow on these prepared sites or nuclei. It is only by following this sequence of steps with a glass containing a suitable nucleating agent that an exceedingly large number of very small crystals can be formed uniformly distributed throughout the body of the article to give the article its unique properties and that uncontrolled, spontaneous crystallization — the old objectionable devitrification of the glass — ■ can be avoided.
5. Defendant alleges that the x-ray diffraction and chemical extraction tests applied by plaintiff to establish the percent crystallinity of defendant’s products are plagued with a variety of errors which are not eliminated by plaintiff’s proofs of infringement, so that plaintiff has not established satisfactorily that defendant’s products meet the 40 %-60 % crystallinity requirement. However, the Court of Appeals, 374 F.2d at 478-479, has specifically ruled that these tests are sufficiently precise to permit adequate measurement of percent crystallinity and the actual test data placed into evidence by plaintiff,
Defendant also alleges that the term “interlocked crystals” used in the patent requires that plaintiff show a crystal relationship such as that which exists between pieces of a jigsaw puzzle or clasped hands in order to establish infringement, something which plaintiff has not done. While the term “interlocked crystals” may encompass the relationships suggested by defendant, it also encompasses the relationship intended by the inventor, Dr. Stookey, namely, where “crystals [are] surrounded by other small crystals and essentially trapped or in contact with all of these surrounding crystals in such a manner as would be expected that these crystals start from nuclei that [are] uniformly disposed through the glass. * * * ”
6. Commencing in June 1963, defendant has manufactured, and commencing July 27, 1963, defendant has sold, its RP-31 glass-ceramic cooking vessels, such as skillets and sauce pans, under defendant’s trademark COOKWARE. The chemical oxide analysis of defendant’s accused COOKWARE as analyzed by plaintiff and as analyzed by defendant is as follows, and there is no significant difference between these two analyses:
As analyzed by plaintiff As analyzed by defendant
Si02 62.2 62.98
AI2O3 20.14 19.76
b2o3 5.21 5.65
Ti02 MgO 3.62 3.17 3.58 3.49
Li20 Zr02 3.14 0.8 3.00 0.6
CaO 0.12 less than 0.1
Na20 0.5 0.52
K20 0.24 0.14
Fe203 0.044 0.056
As203 0.53 0.34
99.71 100.22
This product contains by weight more than 90% of silica, alumina, titania, lithia and magnesia, and the amount of titania is within the range of 2 to 20% of the composition.
7. Shortly before trial, in March, 1965, defendant’s counsel advised plaintiff’s counsel that defendant had offered on the market a new COOKWARE product referred to by defendant as ZTS-3, the first continuous manufacture of which would take place in April, 1965. It was also stated that defendant’s intention was to convert its operations to the new product but that defendant was not abandoning the old formulation. Six samples typical of the new COOKWARE in finished form and six typical samples in the green glass state were forwarded by defendant to plaintiff on April 7, 1965. The oxide analyses of this new
By defendant By plaintiff
Si02 63.16 63.38
B2O3 3.40 3.04
Fe203 .04 .04
Ti02 .97 1.00
AI2O3 20.69 21.25
CaO .02 .28
MgO 3.19 3.11
Na20 .64 .52
K20 .16 .23
AS2O3 1.28 .97
Li20 3.46 3.25
Zr02 2.00 2.53
Sn02 .99 .51
P2O5 .29
Defendant’s ZTS-3 COOKWARE is generally the same as its RP-31 COOKWARE. The only important difference between the two products, for purposes of this litigation, is that the nucleating agents in RP-31 COOKWARE are about 3.6% Ti02 plus about .6% Zr02, whereas the nucleating agents in ZTS-3 COOKWARE are about 1% Ti02, about 2% Zr02 and about 1% Sn02.
8. Defendant’s RP-31 COOKWARE is a ceramic body consisting essentially of a multiplicity of interlocked inorganic crystals dispersed in a glassy matrix which are formed by crystallization in situ from a glass consisting essentially of inorganic compounds.
Defendant’s RP-31 COOKWARE directly and literally satisfies every requirement of each of claims 12 and 21, the broadest and most specific claims, respectively, of the Stookey patent 2,920,-971 in suit. RP-31 COOKWARE is a direct and literal infringement of these product claims.
9. Defendant’s ZTS-3 COOKWARE is a ceramic body consisting essentially of a multiplicity of interlocked inorganic crystals dispersed in a glassy matrix which are formed by crystallization in situ from a glass consisting essentially of inorganic compounds.
Defendant’s ZTS-3 COOKWARE directly and literally satisfies every requirement of product claim 12 of Stookey patent 2,920,971 in suit. ZTS-3 COOKWARE is a direct and literal infringement of claim 12.
10. The total of Si02, A1203, Ti02, and the basic metal oxides CaO, MgO, and Li20 is in excess of 90% in defendant’s ZTS-3 COOKWARE, and this product escapes direct and literal infringement of specific product claim 21 only in that its Ti02 content is less than the 2-20% limits specified by the claim. Instead, the nucleating agents in ZTS-3 COOKWARE are about 1% Ti02, about 2% Zr02, and about 1% Sn02.
The combination of about 1% Ti02, about 2% Zr02, and about 1% Sn02, as nucleating agents in ZTS-3 COOKWARE, is the equivalent of more than 2% of Ti02 alone as a nucleating agent, and ZTS-3 COOKWARE is an infringement in fact of claim 21 of the patent in suit.
11. Defendant’s RP-31 COOKWARE is a ceramic product manufactured from a batch of glass-making materials as described in Finding No. 6 which is first melted, and then formed into shaped articles and cooled to transparent glass ware. They are subsequently converted by heat treatment to an opaque crystallized ceramic.
The heat treatment given defendant’s RP-31 COOKWARE to convert it from glass to ceramic is as follows: the ware is brought to 1150°F. in 2% hours; then its temperature is raised at a rate of 100°F. per hour to 1700°F. in a period of 5% hours; and the ware is thereafter cooled. This heat treatment amounts to heating the ware rapidly to about its annealing temperature of 1156-1200 °F., and thereafter heating it slowly to its crystallization temperature. During this slow heating above the annealing temperature, the ware is above the annealing temperature but below the maximum nucleation temperature for a time greatly in excess of 1 minute. The final temperature of 1700°F. is a temperature at which the glass-making ingredients in the product crystallize but below the temperature at which the predominant crystalline phase redissolves, and the product is maintained at or about that temperature for a time sufficient to obtain a product which is substantially more than 40% crystalline.
The method by which defendant’s RP-31 COOKWARE is manufactured directly and literally satisfies every requirement of each step of typical method claim 5 of the Stookey patent 2,920,971 in suit; and its composition directly and literally satisfies every requirement of that claim concerning the composition of the glass-making batch upon which the method steps are performed. Defendant’s manufacture of RP-31 COOKWARE is an infringement of typical method claim 5 of the Stookey patent.
12. Defendant’s ZTS-3 COOKWARE is a ceramic product manufactured from a batch of glass-making materials as described in Finding No. 7 which is first melted, and then formed into shaped articles and cooled to transparent glass ware. They are subsequently converted by heat treatment to an opaque crystallized ceramic.
The heat treatment given defendant’s ZTS-3 COOKWARE to convert it from glass to ceramic is as follows: The ware is heated to 1300°F. (above its annealing temperature of 1100°F., but below its maximum nucleation temperature), and held at that temperature for 1 hour; its temperature is then raised at 2°F. per minute to a temperature of 1750°F. in a period of over 4% hours; the ware is then held at 1750 °F. for 1 hour, and finally cooled to room temperature. The final temperature of 1750°F. is a temperature at which the glass-making in-
13. The method by which defendant’s ZTS-3 COOKWARE is manufactured directly and literally satisfies every requirement of each step of typical method claim 5 of Stookey patent 2,920,971 in suit. Its composition also satisfies the requirements of that claim concerning the glass-making batch upon which the method steps are performed, with the exception that it includes less than 21% of TÍO2. The nucleating agent in ZTS-3 COOKWARE, a combination of about 1% TÍO2, about 2% ZrÜ2 and 1% Sn02, however, is the equivalent of an amount of Ti02 greater than 2% alone;
14. Application for the Stookey patent in suit was filed June 4,1956. Plaintiff made a general public announcement of its new PYROCERAM products, and the method of making them, in May, 1957. Experimental work on developing additional PYROCERAM products for commercial applications was continued by plaintiff in 1957 and early 1958. Commencing in the Fall of 1958, plaintiff began to manufacture and sell a line of cooking and serving vessels under its trademark CORNINGWARE. National distribution of this product was achieved in 1959 and in 1960, plaintiff constructed a special plant at Martinsburg, West Virginia with a capacity for making about $40,000,000 worth of CORNING-WARE a year. Sales increased so fast that the Martinsburg plant had to be expanded twice in the next three years.
Commencing in the Fall of 1958, defendant purchased and analyzed plaintiff’s CORNINGWARE and during 1959, defendant conducted an extensive series of laboratory experiments (entitled “Pyroceram Progress Reports”) to duplicate plaintiff’s products and to study many variations of them. Defendant obtained in June, 1959 a copy of the Belgian patent corresponding to the Stookey patent in suit, and a copy of the U. S. patent in suit shortly after it issued January 12, 1960. Since 1959, defendant has conducted an intensive and continuous study to learn all it could about Stookey’s glass-ceramics, the prior art and, if possible, how to “beat” plaintiff’s patent in suit so that defendant could participate in the market for CORNINGWARE which had been pioneered and developed by plaintiff.
15. From the outset of its activities in the Fall of 1958, defendant has sought to learn all it could about PYROCERAM from plaintiff’s patents, by interviews with ex-employees of plaintiff, including Dr. Condon, former Director of Research for plaintiff, and from talks and publications by Dr. Stookey and his assistants. Defendant’s Vice President, Herrold, was instructed at an early date “to get into this project, and press it to a conclusion, to provide the facilities necessary and to find out what this crystallized glass was al about”.
By the summer of 1961, defendant had developed a composition (called RP-3 in its laboratories) which was felt to be about ready for use in producing cooking and serving dishes to compete with Coming’s CORNING WARE. Defend
During 1962, defendant went ahead with commercialization experiments and made minor changes in the composition of its RP-3 material, calling the new material RP-31. In August of 1962, defendant’s Dilliard reported that the product was ready and that the only problem was that it might be questioned “on a legal basis”.
16. Defendant’s infringing activities in manufacturing and selling its RP-31 and ZTS-3 COOKWARE were undertaken only after defendant had obtained and analyzed plaintiff’s products, and had studied the Stookey patent in suit. Defendant’s decision to try to capture some of the CORNING WARE market, developed by plaintiff through its research, was made in spite of defendant’s request for a license under the patent in suit, and plaintiff’s refusal to grant such a license.
In addition, in marketing its RP-31 COOKWARE, defendant deliberately made it in a shape generally the same as plaintiff’s CORNING WARE; it used a removable handle as did plaintiff; it used the name COOKWARE which is unnecessarily close to plaintiff’s CORNING WARE; it used packaging similar to plaintiff’s packaging; and it guaranteed its product in language virtually identical to the language by which CORNING WARE is guaranteed.
Defendant’s infringement of Stookey patent 2,920,971 in suit has been a determined effort on the part of defendant to profit and usurp the benefits of plaintiff’s research and development, in deliberate disregard of the rights conferred on plaintiff by the Stookey patent. Defendant’s infringement of that patent has been deliberate and intentional.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. Defendant has infringed Letters Patent No. 2,920,971 by its manufacture and sale of its RP-31 COOKWARE.
3. Defendant’s infringement of Patent 2,920,971 has been deliberate and intentional.
The foregoing Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law constitute the Court’s determination of the infringement issue in this patent suit. However, in light of the fact that one issue crucial to the ultimate disposition of this lawsuit — the defense of anti-trust —misuse—remains for decision, no final judgment on the issue of infringement will be entered until the anti-trust— misuse issue is decided.
Submit order in accordance herewith.
. PX-l; PX-2.
. PX-l; PX-2.
. Tr. 1172, 1220, 1278, 1296-97, 2647-48, 2648-52, 2724-25, 2890-91.
. Tr. 937, 1000, 1472.
. Tr. 583-84. The testimony of Dr. Yoder, Tr. 1827-28, 1864-65, that the term “interlocked crystals” requires a jigsaw puzzle or clasped hand relationship is not persuasive.
. PX-2 (pp. 83, 87-89).
. Pretrial Order (p. 7, 1[ (c) (6)).
. Pretrial Order (pp. 8-9, If (c) (8)).
. Tr. 1532-35, 1539-50; note 8, supra.
. Tr. 1218-19, 1694, 1696; see note 5, supra.
. Tr. 980-81, 1463.
. Tr. 936-37, 1172-73, 1220, 1278, 1296-97, 2647-52, 2724-25, 2890-91.
. See note 12, supra.
. Tr. 980-81.
. See Finding of Fact 7, supra; note 10, supra.
. Tr. 1001, 1472-73.
. Tr. 1000, 1472.
. Tr. 1297.
. Tr. 1472-73.
. See Finding of Fact 7, supra; note 9, supra.
. Tr. 1485-86, 1488-92, 1502-03, 1539-50.
. Pretrial Order (p. 7, IT (c) (6) ; p. 9,1 (c) (9)).
. Tr. 1220, 1701-05; note 12, supra.
. Pretrial Order (pp. 8-9, If (c) (8) ; p. 9, V (c) (10)).
. Tr. 1714; note 17, supra.
. See Finding of Fact 10, supra.
. Tr. 697-700, 722-23, 736-37.
. Tr. 2660-62, 2670-73, 2674-79, 2682, 2685-86, 2735-40, 2742-47, 2769-76, 2808-12, 2855, 2862-63, 2869-72; PX-149.
. Tr. 2734.
. Tr. 2730; PX-152.
. Tr. 2657-60.
. Tr. 2661-62, 2808-12.
. Tr. 2661, 2811-12.
. Tr. 2862-63.
. PX-174, 181, 196.
. Tr. 2840-42, 2855, 2871-72.
. See Finding of Fact 15, supra.
. Tr. 709-20; compare PX-61-A and PX-62-A; compare PX-61-C and PX-62-0.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- CORNING GLASS WORKS v. ANCHOR HOCKING GLASS CORPORATION
- Status
- Published