C.E. Equipment Co. v. United States

OPINION

RADER, Judge.

Plaintiffs — C.E. Equipment Co., Inc. (C.E.) and Harco Corporation — are respectively the assignee and licensee of United States Patent No. 3,725,669, “Deep Anode Bed for Cathodic Protection,” (the ’669 patent). Under 28 U.S.C. § 1498(a) (1982), plaintiffs seek “reasonable and entire compensation” from the United States for infringement of the ’669 patent. The ’669 patent defines a method and apparatus for protecting buried metallic structures from corrosion. In particular, the ’669 patent purports to disclose a novel method for replacing spent anodes.

Plaintiffs moved for…