La Maur, Inc. v. DeMert & Dougherty, Inc.

SUMMARY

MEMORANDUM OPINION

MAROVITZ, District Judge.

After extensive review of the cumbersome briefs and records herein, I have concluded, as did the Eighth Circuit, that the Spiegel Patent is invalid. I am unable to accept plaintiff’s major theory that the functions of setting lotions and hair sprays are so divergent as to make plaintiff’s “invention” a sufficient advance over the prior art as developed in the Janistyn reference. That is, Janistyn’s water-PVP combination appears to leave an identical water-soluble film on a subject’s hair, and should not, via plaintiff’s semantic tricks, be…