Cali v. Eastern Airlines, Inc.
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
442 F.2d 65 (1971)
- Written by Meagan Messina, JD
Facts
Anthony Cali (plaintiff) was a mechanic who worked for Pan American World Airways (Pan Am). Cali submitted an idea through a suggestion form in 1962. The suggestion-box idea resulted in correcting a defect in a jet engine that the airline industry’s professional engineers were unable to correct. Cali applied for a patent for his idea on September 1, 1964. Eastern Airlines, Inc. (Eastern) (defendant) allegedly infringed on Cali’s patent. Both Cali and Eastern agree that Cali’s suggestion led Pan Am to evaluate Cali’s idea to find out whether the idea was worth using. Cali sued Eastern for patent infringement. Eastern moved for summary judgment. The trial court granted Eastern’s motion for summary judgment on the grounds that Cali’s invention was in public use rather than for primarily experimental purposes more than one year before Cali filed for the patent, thus rendering the patent invalid. Cali appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Kaufman, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 805,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
