Peter M. Roberts, Cross-Appellee v. Sears, Roebuck and Company, a Corporation, Cross-Appellant

SPRECHER, Circuit Judge.

The major issues in this case are whether the district court properly declined to decide the validity of plaintiff’s patent in a suit for fraud, breach of a confidential relationship and negligent misrepresentation in defendant’s procurement of an assignment of plaintiff’s patent rights and whether the district court properly concluded that plaintiff had elected his legal remedies and, therefore, was barred from seeking his equitable remedies of rescission and restitution.

I

This case involves the efforts of one of this nation’s largest retail companies, Sears, Roebuck &…