260 F. 220 | E.D. Mich. | 1919
This is a motion to dismiss the bill of complaint herein. The bill charges infringement by the defendant of two patents on automobile carburetor improvements owned by plaintiff, and prays for the usual temporary and permanent injunctions and accounting against all of the defendants. No separate application, however, for a temporary injunction was made, and no such injunction was issued. The bill was brought against defendant corporation and certain individual defendants, and it charges that the defendants last mentioned are and have been stockholders of, and have in the past owned, controlled, directed, supervised, and managed, the defendant corporation, and that they now continue so to do, and that said defendant corporation and the other defendants, both as individuals and as stockholders as aforesaid, have infringed the patents in suit, and are continuing, preparing, and threatening to do so in the future, and are preparing, aiding, and encouraging others so to do.
The motion to dismiss.is based upon grounds which may be grouped as follows: (1) That the defendant corporation was dissolved in accordance with the statutes of the state of Michigan prior to the filing of the bill herein; (2) that such corporation has not, since the end of the year 1917, manufactured, sold, or used carburetors of any kind; (3) that the individual defendants were connected with the manufacture, sale, and use of carburetors prior to the end of 1917 only as managers and supervisors of said defendant corporation, and not as individuals; (4) that since the time when the defendant corporation ceased, as already alleged, to manufacture, sell, or use carburetors, the individual defendants have not, as officers, stockholders, or directors of said corporation, or as individuals, made, used, or sold carburetors; (5) that at no time prior to the filing of the bill herein has any one notified any of the defendants of any claims of infringement under either of the patents in suit; (6) that one of said patents, the so-called Ahara patent, expired by limitation on October 15, 1918, 17 days after the date of the filing of such bill; (7) that the other of said patents, the so-called Mingst patent, is void on its face for lack of novelty and of invention. These contentions will be discussed in the order named.
While the decisions of the courts on this question are not entirely in accord, I am satisfied that the correct rule is now established to the effect that if at the date of the filing of a bill charging infringement of a patent there is sufficient time, under the rules of practice of the court in which such bill has been filed, to obtain a temporary injunction thereon before the’ expiration of such patent, the court acquires the necessary jurisdiction to grant whatever equitable relief may be proper, and it may retain such jurisdiction even after the expiration of the patent, notwithstanding the fact that no temporary injunction has been actually issued or separately asked. Clark v. Wooster, 119 U. S. 322, 7 Sup. Ct. 217, 30 L. Ed. 392; Adams v. Bridgewater Iron Co. (C. C.) 26 Fed. 324; Kittle v. De Graaf (C. C.) 30 Fed. 689; Bradner Adjustable Hanger Co. v. Waterbury Button
As there was ample time, according to the rules of this court, after the filing of the bill in the present case, to obtain a temporary injunction if a motion therefor had been made, I have no doubt that this court has acquired jurisdiction over the subject-matter of the suit, and that it ought to now retain such jurisdiction, and make such disposition of the case after the final hearing as the facts and the law shall require.
Without expressing any opinion upon the merits of the Mingst patent, I am satisfied that such patent should not be held void upon its face.
For the reasons stated the motion to dismiss the bill must be denied, and an order will be entered in conformity with the terms of this opinion.