Kerotest Manufacturing Co. v. C-o-two Fire Equipment Co. (342 U.S. 180)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 2, 1952 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 342 U.S. 180 · 72 S. Ct. 219
- Decided
- January 2, 1952
- Term
- October Term 1951
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Frankfurter
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Me. Justice Frankfurter delivered the opinion of the Court. . The C-O-Two Fire Equipment Company, the respondent here, owns two patents, one issued on November 23, 1948, and the other reissued on August 23, 1949, for squeeze-grip valves and discharge heads for portable fire extinguishers. C-O-Two, incorporated in Delaware, has offices in Newark, New Jersey. On January 17, 1950, it commenced in the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois an action against the Acme Equipment Company for “making and causing to be made and selling and using” devices which were charged with infringing C-O-Two’s patents. On March 9, 1950,. the petitioner Kerotest began in the District Court of Delaware this proceeding against C-O-Two for a declaration that the two patents sued on in the Illinois action are-invalid and that the devices which Kerotest manufactures and supplies to Acme, the Illinois defendant, do not. infringe the C-O-Two patents. Kerotest, a Pennsylvania corporation, has its offices in Pittsburgh, but was subject to service of process in Illinois. C-O-Two on March 22, 1950, filed an amendment to its complaint joining Kerotest as a defendant in the Illinois ■action. In Delaware, C-O-Two moved for a stay of the declaratory judgment action and Kerotest sought to enjoin C-O-Two from prosecuting the Illinois suit. “either as against Kerotest alone, or generally, as [the…
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