Sundstrand Corporation v. American Brake Shoe Company

SWYGERT, Circuit Judge.

The principal question is whether a patent owner who has sued a customer of an alleged infringing manufacturer may be required to involuntarily litigate his action against the customer in a subsequently filed declaratory judgment action initiated by the manufacturer against the patent owner by the court, sitting in another district, having jurisdiction of the later filed declaratory judgment action.

To show the facts as succinctly and understandably as possible a diagrammatic presentation may be more helpful than a recital.

This was the posture of the three suits on July…