Transparent-wrap Machine Corp. v. Stokes & Smith Co. (329 U.S. 637)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 3, 1947 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 329 U.S. 637 · 67 S. Ct. 610
- Docket
- No. 208
- Argued
- January 7, 1947
- Decided
- February 3, 1947
- Term
- October Term 1946
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Douglas
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Douglas (wrote), Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed
- Dissenting
- Justice Burton (wrote), Justice Black (wrote), Justice Rutledge (wrote), Justice Murphy (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a suit for a declaratory judgment (Judicial Code § 274d, 28 U. S. C. § 400) and an injunction, instituted by respondent for the determination of the legality and enforceability of a provision of a patent license agreement. The District Court, whose jurisdiction was based on diversity of citizenship (Judicial Code § 24 (1), 28 U. S. C. §41 (1)), entered judgment for petitioner, holding the provision valid. The Circuit Court of Appeals reversed by a divided vote, 156 F. 2d 198, being of the opinion that the provision in question was illegal under the line of decisions represented by Mercoid Corporation v. Mid-Continent Co., 320 U. S. 661. The case is here on a petition for a writ of certiorari which we granted because of the public importance of the question presented and of the apparent conflict between the decision below and Allbright-Nell Co. v. Stanley Hiller Co., 72 F. 2d 392, decided by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Petitioner, organized in 1934, has patents on a machine which bears the trade-mark “Transwrap.” This machine makes transparent packages, simultaneously fills them with such articles as candy, and seals them. In 1937 petitioner sold and respondent acquired the Transwrap business in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the right to use the trade-mark “Transwrap,” and an exclusive license…
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