Metallizing Engineering Co. v. Kenyon Bearing & Auto Parts

Metallizing Engineering Co. (MEC) (plaintiff) sued Kenyon (defendant) for infringing a metal-conditioning process patent originally granted to the inventor, Meduna, and won on most infringement claims, with the district court upholding the patent's validity. The evidence showed Meduna had commercially used the process — selling products made with it — for more than a year before he filed his August 1942 patent application (issued May 1943), even though he kept the process itself secret. Kenyon appealed the district court's ruling upholding the patent.