White Heat Products Co. v. Thomas

Citations

• 266 Pa. 551
• 109 A. 685
• 1920 Pa. LEXIS 611

Syllabus

<p>Master and servant — Contract—Written contract — Doubtful terms — Oral evidence — Construction by parties — Patented articles —New inventions — “Earthenware products” — Equity.</p> <p>1. Where a corporation, organized “for the purpose of making and selling products from silica and other materials,” and engaged exclusively in the manufacture of building material, makes a written agreement with an inventor, by which the latter enters into the employment of the company, under a covenant in the agreement, by which he binds himself to assign to the company certain patents, and to permit the use of another patent, “in so far as the same relates to the business of making bricks, stone products, earthenware products or analogous and collateral products,” together with all his rights to any future invention which he may make relating to such products, during the period of his employment and one year thereafter, the company cannot claim a right to the assignment to it of a process to make a tool, such as an abrasive wheel, composed principally of bauxite clay and intended to be used for grinding iron, steel and other hard metals.</p> <p>2. Such a construction of the agreement is applicable where it appears that the inventor was in the employment of the company for a year before the written agreement was signed, under an oral agreement substantially the same as the written one, and that before he executed the writing he especially stated to the company’s manager that he was unwilling to make an agreement obligating himself to assign patents which did not pertain to the manufacture of bricks, wainscoting and articles entering into building construction.</p> <p>3. Where the products of an inventive mind, is sought to be appropriated under an agreement to assign to another, the language of the agreement must be clear, and show an unmistakable intention that the particular matter covered by the invention or patent, is within the intention of the parties.</p> <p>4. In order to a