Rimbach v. Wanmaker

Name

Rimbach v. Wanmaker

Cite

362 F.2d 561

Year

1966

Bluebook cite

Rimbach v. Wanmaker, 362 F.2d 561 (C.C.P.A. 1966).

Author

URL

362 F.2d 561

Item Type

case

Summary

Appeal from patent interference proceeding in which priority was awarded to the senior party. The subject matter of this count is a phosphor composition which is ‘activated’ by copper and manganese, and used in fluorescent lamps as well as in high pressure, mercury vapor lamps and other similar applications. The court characterized the main issue as determining “what must be proven as to actual uses or so-called ‘utility of the composition’ to prove its reduction to practice.”

The Board, awarding priority to the senior party, found it not sufficient to establish utility “merely to find that the material exhibits some fluorescence when placed under an ultraviolet lamp. There is nothing in the record to indicate that such a test . . . was sufficient to establish that the materials could be used for {the junior party’s} purpose, in a high pressure mercury vapor lamp or other fluorescent lamp or for any other purpose without further tests.”

The court reversed the finding of the Board. The court first stated that “it is not necessary to demonstrate the practicality or utility of a composition to establish a reduction to practice where that praticality or utility is known.” Id. at 565. The court next noted that since the count did not specify a particular utility, “evidence proving utility for any purpose is sufficient to establish a reduction to practice . . . .” Id. at 565. Thus, the court, after reviewing the junior party’s specification, stated that “{w}e think it clear, therefore, that the count in issue when read in the entire context of the {junior party’s} disclosures clearly envisioned utility as something which would be known to those of ordinary skill in the art once the prosphor composition was made known and it was tested under the laboratory test conditions, which the record establishes was done, with results which such a person could then apply to other uses.” Id. at 566.

Excerpts and Summaries

Created

Tuesday 23 of September, 2008 14:08:43 GMT
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Tuesday 23 of September, 2008 14:08:43 GMT
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