Photochart v. Photo Patrol, Inc.

GOODMAN, District Judge.

The three issues to be resolved in this cause are:

1. Is plaintiffs’ method patent No. 2,-382,617 (as reissued #22,881)1 valid?

2. Did defendants’ activities culminating in the photographing of horse racé finishes at Golden Gate Fields, California, *199in the autumn of 1947 amount to infringement of plaintiffs’ patent?

3. Did these activities constitute unfair competition ?

1. The Court holds the patent to be invalid. The use of slit photography to determine the speed of moving objects passing a given line was disclosed by foreign patents in the 1920’s. To put slit photography…