Tracor, Inc. v. Hewlett-Packard Company

Defendant-Appellant, Hewlett-Packard Company, appeals from a judgment order of the district court upholding the validity of U. S. Patent 3,601,609, “Ionization Detection Device Using a Nickel-63 Radioactive Source”, granted August 24, 1971 and owned by plaintiff-appellee, Tracor, Inc., and finding that Hewlett-Packard had infringed claims 1, 2 and 11 of the patent.

The subject matter of Tracor’s patent, insofar as claims 1, 2 and 11 are concerned, is the use of the radioactive isotope nickel-63 as a radiation source in an electron capture device operative at temperatures in excess of 225° C…