Doherty Research Co. v. Vickers Petroleum Co.

BRATTON, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a decree dismissing the bill in an ordinary patent infringement suit and the question for determination is whether plaintiff owned the title to the patent necessary to the right to maintain the action. Letters patent No. 1,260,584 issued to Cleveland Trust Company as assignee of Layton O. Sherman, the inventor, on March 26, 1918, covering a process for the distillation of crude petroleum. In addition to the defenses of invalidity and noninfringement, the defendant challenged the sufficiency of plaintiff’s title to the patent to enable it to…