Cardinal Chemical Co. v. Morton International, Inc.
United States Supreme Court
508 U.S. 83 (1993)
Morton International (Morton) (plaintiff) sued Cardinal Chemical Co. (Cardinal) (defendant) for patent infringement, and Cardinal counterclaimed for a declaratory judgment that Morton's patents were invalid. In related suits against other alleged infringers over the same patents, other district courts (South Carolina and Louisiana) had found no infringement and separately declared the patents invalid, but the Federal Circuit, in both cases, affirmed the non-infringement finding while vacating the invalidity declaration without reaching its merits — leaving Morton's patents practically worthless in the market (due to the vacated-but-unresolved invalidity findings) while competitors still faced potential future infringement suits over them. Cardinal sought Supreme Court review of the Federal Circuit's refusal to address the invalidity counterclaim's merits.
Whether a finding that a defendant has not infringed on a patent justifies a refusal to reach the merits of a counterclaim seeking a declaration that the patent is invalid.