United States v. Line Material Co. et al. (333 U.S. 287)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 8, 1948 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 333 U.S. 287 · 68 S. Ct. 550
- Docket
- No. 8
- Argued
- April 29, 1947; reargued November 12, 1947
- Decided
- March 8, 1948
- Term
- October Term 1947
- Vote
- 5–3
- Majority author
- Justice Reed
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Justice Douglas (wrote a concurrence), Justice Reed (wrote), Justice Black (joined a concurrence), Justice Rutledge (joined a concurrence), Justice Murphy (joined a concurrence)
- Dissenting
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Burton (wrote), Justice Frankfurter
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Reed delivered the opinion of the Court. The United States sought an injunction under §§ 1 and 4 of the Sherman Act in the District Court against continuance of violations of that Act by an allegedly unlawful combination or conspiracy between appellees, through contracts, to restrain interstate trade in certain patented electrical devices. The restraint alleged arose from a cross-license arrangement between the patent owners, Line Material' Company and Southern States Equipment Corporation, to fix the sale price of the devices, to which arrangement the other appellees, licensees to make and vend, adhered by supplemental contracts. The District Court, 64 F. Supp. 970, dismissed the complaint as to all defendants upon its conclusion that the rule of United States v. General Electric Co., 272 U. S. 476, was controlling. That case approved as lawful a pat-entee’s license to make and vend which required the licensee in its sales of the patented devices to conform to the licensor’s sale price schedule. Appeal was taken directly to this Court, 32 Stat. 823, and probable jurisdiction noted here on October 21, 1946. We have jurisdiction. I. The Facts. The challenged arrangements center around three product patents, which are useful in protecting an electric circuit from the dangers incident to a short circuit or other overload. Two of them are dropout fuse cutouts and the…
Excerpt of a 149,333-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.