Bonito Boats, Inc. v. Thunder Craft Boats, Inc. (489 U.S. 141)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 21, 1989 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 489 U.S. 141 · 109 S. Ct. 971
- Decided
- February 21, 1989
- Term
- October Term 1988
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice O'Connor
- Issue area
- Federalism
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
- Constitutional ruling
- State/territorial law held unconstitutional
Opinion excerpt
Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. We must decide today what limits the operation of the federal patent system places on the States’ ability to offer substantial protection to utilitarian and design ideas which the patent laws leave otherwise unprotected. In Interpart Corp. v. Italia, 777 F. 2d 678 (1985), the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concluded that a California law prohibiting the use of the “direct molding process” to duplicate unpat-ented articles posed no threat to the policies behind the federal patent laws. In this case, the Florida Supreme Court came to a contrary conclusion. It struck down a Florida statute which prohibits the use of the direct molding process to duplicate unpatented boat hulls, finding that the protection offered by the Florida law conflicted with the balance struck by Congress in the federal patent statute between the encouragement of invention and free competition in unpatented ideas. 515 So. 2d 220 (1987). We granted certiorari to resolve the conflict, 486 U. S. 1004 (1988), and we now affirm the judgment of the Florida Supreme Court. I In September 1976, petitioner Bonito Boats, Inc. (Bonito), a Florida corporation, developed a hull design for a fiberglass recreational boat which it marketed under the trade name Bonito Boat Model 5VBR. App. 5. Designing the boat hull required substantial effort on the part of…
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