Mead Corp. v. Strickland

Undercofler, Justice.

Mead Packaging Corporation makes cardboard beverage cartons in an Atlanta manufacturing plant using B-ll presses. It purchases the steel dies used to cut and score the cardboard from Chempar Corporation in Pennsylvania, which owns an exclusive license on the patent for the die-making process. Its manufacturing process, which employs extensive technology including computers, results in highly accurate dies with close tolerances. Mead seeks a refund of the sales taxes paid on the purchase of these dies from Chempar, claiming that the transaction between them is a “personal…