Steelcase, Inc. v. Delwood Furniture Co.

ALYIN B. RUBIN, Circuit Judge:

A chair manufacturer who deliberately copied the highly successful chair being marketed by a competitor justifies his actions on the basis that the patents for the chair he copied were invalid. National policy encourages competition on the theory that the battle of the marketplace benefits consumers. Because every patent creates a monopoly, Congress has balanced the encouragement of inventions with its devotion to competition,1 and exacted standards for patent validity that deny patent protection even to some successful and innovative ideas. Thus, patentability…