Cardinal Chemical Company, Etc., et al. v. Morton International, Inc. (508 U.S. 83)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 17, 1993 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 508 U.S. 83 · 113 S. Ct. 1967
- Decided
- May 17, 1993
- Term
- October Term 1992
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Stevens
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court. The question presented is whether the affirmance by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit of a finding that a patent has not been infringed is a sufficient reason for vacating a declaratory judgment holding the patent invalid. Respondent, Morton International, Inc. (Morton), is the owner of two patents on chemical compounds used in polyvinyl chloride (PVC). In 1983 Morton filed this action in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina alleging that petitioners, Cardinal Chemical Company and its affiliates (Cardinal), had infringed those patents. Cardinal filed an answer denying infringement and a counterclaim for a declaratory judgment that the patents are invalid. While this case was pending in the District Court, Morton filed two other actions against other alleged infringers of the same patents. One was filed in the Eastern District of Louisiana, the other in the District of Delaware. The defendants in both cases, like Cardinal, filed counterclaims for declaratory judgments that the patents were invalid. Of the three, the Louisiana ease was tried first and, in 1988, resulted in a judgment for the defendant finding no infringement and declaring the patents invalid. On appeal, the Federal Circuit affirmed the finding of no infringement but vacated the judgment of invalidity. The Delaware case…
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