Hugo Black

“ Royalties were to be computed on the basis of 'net sales' of articles 'made in accordance with any of the patents or applications under this license.' Section 14 provided that if Metallic elected to terminate the contract, without ceasing to manufacture the pans Metallic should 'be estopped from denying the validity of said patent * * * and be deemed an infringer thereof.' Metallic maintained the patentee-fixed prices and paid royalties on pans deemed by it to be covered by the patent. ”

“ The question here is whether the defendant, in a suit to recover royalties only under a terminated patent license agreement containing price-fixing provisions, can challenge the validity of the patent despite a covenant in the license contract that he would not do so.
The petitioner, Edward Katzinger Company, and the respondent, Chicago Metallic Mfg. Company, make and sell tin baking pans. The undenied testimony was that Metallic sold its pans over a large part of the United States, probably in every state in the country. Katzinger became owner of Jackson patent No. ”

“ Moreover, solicitude for the interest of the public fostered by freedom from invalid patents and from restraints of trade, which has been manifest by the line of decisions of which the Scott Paper Co. ”