Rehm Pty Ltd v. Websters Security Systems (International) Pty Ltd & Ors [1988] FCA 232
Federal Court of Australia
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'JUDGMENT No. 222 het
CATCHWORDS
Patents - standard patent - invention entitled "Improvements in
Security Means" - infringement - construction of claim
reproducing consistory clause and of omnibus claim - validity -
fair basing of claim on matter described in the specification -
utility - whether qualified reader would construe claim as
including embodiments obviously useless.
Patents Act 1903.
Patents Act i952.
Trade Practices Act 1974.
Federal Court of Australia Act 1976.
Jurisdiction of Courts (Miscellaneous Amendments)
American opti cat Corp. v Allergan Pharmaceuticals Pty. Ltd.
P -
Interlego AG v Toltoys Pty. Ltd. (1973) 130 CLR 461
Erickson's Patent SED x5 RPC 477
Raleigh Cycle Co. Ltd. v Miller & Co. Ltd. (1948) 65 RPC 141
U ux Pty. Ltd. v AMP Incorporated (1974) 48 ALUR 17
Monsanto epesey v Commissioner of Patents (1974) 48 ALUR 59
ommonwea. Industrial Gases Ltd. v M.W.A. Holdings Pty. Ltd.
(1970) 47° ALIR 385
Catnic Components Ltd. v Hill and Smith Ltd. [1982] RPC 183
Populin v H.B. Nominees Pty. Ltd. (1982) 59 FLR 37
Rhone~Poulenc Agrochinie SA v UIM Chemical Services Pty. Ltd.
FCR
Societe des Usines Chimiques Rhone-Poulenc v Commissioner of
Patents (1958) 100 CLR 5
Re Mond Nickel Company Ltd.'s Appiication [1956] RPC 189
Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd.'s A ication [1960] RPC 223
Coopers Anima Hea Australia Ltd. v Western Stock
Distributors Pty. Ltd. (1966) 67 ALR 390; (1987) 76 ALR 429
F. Hoffman La Roche & Co. AG v Commissioner of Patents (1971)
123 CLR 529
Ludlow Jute Co. v Lowe (1953) 70 RPC 69
Fawcett v Homan (1596) 13 RPC 398
Welch and Perrin & Co. Pty. Ltd. v Worrel (1961) 106 CLR 588
Norton & Gregory Ltd. v Jacobs (1937) 57 Rpc 271
2.
Washex Machinery Corporation v Roy Burton & Co. Pty. Ltd.
T1974) a ALIR
Computer Edge Pty. Ltd. v Apple Computer Inc. (1984) 54 ALR 767
A.C.I. Australia Ltd. v Glamour Glaze Pty. Ltd. (22 April 1988,
unreported)
REHM PTY. LIMITED v
WEBSTERS SECURITY SYSTEMS (INTERNATIONAL) PTY. LIMITED & ORS.
CORAM: GUMMOW J.
PLACE: SYDNEY.
DATE: 20 MAY 1988.
IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
)
)
NEW SOUTH WALES DISTRICT REGISTRY ) No.@512 of 1986.
)
GENERAL DIVISION )
BETWEEN: REHM PTY. LIMITED
Applicant
AND: WEBSTERS SECURITY
SYSTEMS (INTERNATIONAL)
PTY. LIMITED
First Respondent
EXPRESS ALARM SUPPLIES
(AUSTRALIA) PTY. LIMITED
Second Respondent
TRYCUP PTY, LIMITED
Third Respondent
WILLIAM HOWARD
Fourth Respondent
RICHARD TREACY MAILEY
Fifth Respondent
RICHARD WILLIAM JENNINGS
Sixth Respondent
CORAM: GUMMOW J.
PLACE: SYDNEY.
DATE: 20 MAY 1988.
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
Introduction
These proceedings were commenced in 1986, that is to
say, before the passage of the Jurisdiction of Courts
(Miscellaneous Amendments) Act 1987. The significance of that
2.
circumstance shortly will become apparent. The applicant and
the first, second and third respondents are companies
incorporated in New South Wales. From time to time between 26
May 1986 and 10 November 1987, the first respondent supplied to
the second respondent on a retail basis products known as the
Hirsch Micro-50 and the Hirsch Micro-55 Access Control Security
Systems. The first respondent has imported these products from
the United States since early 1986. In July 1987, the first
respondent agreed with Talbot Street and Associates to sell the
Hirsch products to a joint venture company and in August 1987
the third respondent was acquired for this purpose. The fourth
and fifth respondents are directors of the third respondent and
the fifth and sixth respondents are directors of the first
respondent.
The applicant is the registered proprietor of standard
patent No. 537136 which was granted pursuant to the Patents Act
1952 ("the Patents Act") for an invention entitled
"Improvements in Security Means" ("the patent"). The
provisional specification was lodged on 15 February 1980,
and the complete specification was lodged on 5 February 1981.
The term of the patent is a period of 16 years commencing on 5
February 1981. The patent was sealed on 27 September 1984.
The applicant alleges that the first respondent has
imported into Australia from the United States the two Hirsch
security systems which I have mentioned; the importation of
those products together with the advertising for sale, offering
for sale and selling of those products are alleged to be
infringements of the patent by the first respondent. It is
further alleged that the advertising for sale, offering for
sale and marketing of those products by the second and third
respondents likewise constitutes infringement.
The applicant also complains of alleged contraventions
of s. 52 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 ("the TP Act")
together with contraventions of sub-ss. 53 (c) and (g) of that
Act; the jurisdiction of this Court thus initially was
attracted by s. 86 of the TP Act. The complaint arises from
the circulation of various brochures and other written
material by the first, second and third respondents. It is
then said that the fourth, fifth and sixth respondents have
aided, abetted, counselled or procured the contraventions by
the corporate respondents and further that they have been
directly or indirectly knowingly concerned in or parties to
such contravention, within the meaning of s. 75B of the TP Act.
Little time was spent at the trial in dealing with the
trade practices allegations, and their fate was seen by both
parties as following the outcome of the patent dispute. This
was because the complaints made of the advertising material, in
essence, are directed at assertions made therein which would be
accurate if the respondents were successful in the patent
dispute; if the applicant were successful in the patent
dispute, then the parties indicated to the Court that the
future dissemination of these advertising materials probably
would be dealt with by consent orders or other means not
requiring further resolution of any dispute by the Court.
Accordingly, I turn to the patent matter. The patent
contains seven claims and attention has been directed
principally to claim 1, on the footing that 1f the products in
question infringe claim 1, there is no need to deal with claims
2-6 inclusive. However, the applicant pressed an allegation of
infringement of claim 7 as not necessarily following the fate
of the allegation of infringement of claim 1.
In addition to resisting the allegations as to
infringement, the respondents, by cross-claim, put in question
the validity of claim 1 (and the other claims, so far as 1t 158
necessary for the purposes of the case to do so). Section 115
of the Patents Act enables revocation to be sought in this way
without presenting a petition under s. 99.
By the cross-claim, allegations were made as to want
of novelty and as to obviousness. A considerable proportion
of the material in the affidavits which were filed was devoted
to those topics. But at the commencement of the hearing the
Court was informed that the respondents no longer pressed lack
of novelty and obviousness. The respondents still pressed an
allegation of want of fair basing (within the meaning of sub-s.
40 (2) and sub-para. 100 (1) (c) of the Patents Act), together
with a further and fresh allegation of lack of utility (within
the meaning of sub-para. 100 (1) (h) of the Patents Act).
The trial proceeded on the basis that it was only with
these two grounds that the attack on validity was concerned. I
should also note that Counsel were agreed that if the applicant
was successful in its allegation of infringement and in
resisting the attack on validity, then questions of the form of
injunctive and ancillary relief and of the conduct of any
inquiry as to damages or for an account of profits, should
stand over for further submissions.
Allegations also are made in the cross-claim that the
applicant has made to the second respondent unjustifiable
threats within the meaning of s. 121 of the Patents Act and by
those threats also contravened s. 52 and sub-s. 53 (g) of the
TP Act. This aspect of the case may also be left until
resolution of the patent infringement and validity issues.
The cross-claim also denies jurisdiction in the Court
to entertain the proceedings for patent infringement,
presumably on the basis that there is no associated matter
within the meaning of s. 32 of the Federal Court of Australia
Act 1976. No submissions were made in support of that
allegation. I have treated it as a pleader's conceit (albeit
an embarrassing one in the technical sense) in the light of
American Optical Corp. v Allergan Pharmaceuticals Pty. Ltd.
{1985] ATPR 40-539.
The Body of the Patent Specification
As I have indicated, the invention is entitled
"Improvements in Security Means". The complete specification
opens with a general description of the invention and a
statement of the problem to which it was directed. It does so
thus:
previous proposal and the shortcomings thereof.
This invention relates generally to security
systems. More particularly, it relates to
access control systems which may be used for
controlling access to, for example, safes,
strong rooms, buildings, security areas in
buildings, computer terminals and
electronically stored information such as
credit records, just to mention a few of the
applications where security is required.
Many types of access control systems have
been devised over the years, from the
earliest forms of key operated locks, to the
sophistication of combination locks and the
relatively recent advent of electronically
coded card key systems and readers. None of
these systems has been' particularly
satisfactory, however, since more and more
sophisticated procedures have been developed
to defeat them. Keys can be duplicated,
combinations can be broken by trial and
error or detected by observation of an
authorized person opening the combination
controlled lock and electronically coded
card keys can be forged.
The complete specification goes on to describe a
the following terms:
heading
It has previously been proposed to provide
an access control system incorporating a
manually actuable keyboard, the keys of
which are selectively actuable to generate a
code which, if correct, will provide the
necessary access. This system has the
advantage that there is no key or card which
can be lost, stolen or forged, but
conventional keyboard systems suffer a
similar disadvantage to combination locks in
that it is possible for an observer to note
the combination of keys actuated by an
authorized person. The present invention
provides an improved keyboard security
apparatus by which this problem is overcome.
It does so in
The complete specification then proceeds,
under the
"DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION", with the consistory
clause,
the language of which is reflected in claim 1.
consistory clause is as follows:
According to the invention there 1s provided
security apparatus comprising:
a keyboard having an array of selectively
actuable keys;
key value designation means with a random
number generator for generating random
digits and a memory storage for storing the
random digits in successive locations of a
digit storage array corresponding to the
array of the keys;
display means comprising an array of display
units, each corresponding to a respective
key and associated to a respective location
of the digit storage array and register
means to register for each key actuation the
value designated to the actuated key;
characterised in that a multiplexing circuit
is provided for successively transferring
the random digits from the locations of the
digit storage array to the respective
associated display units and that the
register means comprises a microprocessor
detecting the location of a key in the
keyboard array as the key is actuated and
interrogating the multiplexing circuit to
register the current value of said key by
determining that location of the digit
storage array, which is associated to the
display unit corresponding to the actuated
key, and entering the digit stored in the
said location of the digit storage array
into a number store.
The complete specification continues:
The keys may be in the form of push-buttons
and the display units may comprise
light-emitting diode or liquid crystal
displays located adjacent the respective
buttons or carried by the buttons so as to
display the indicia through the outer ends
of the buttons.
The
The complete specification goes on to describe in the following
terms
the particular type of insecurity with which
invention deals:
In operation of the above described
the
apparatus the random scrambling of the
designated key values prevents an observer
from detecting a correct code merely by
er i eys
—
noting the or m which particular
are actuated since the position of the keys
for the correct code will be changed.
In a simple access control system, access
May be obtained solely by operation of the
keyboard. In more sophisticated systems,
however, additional security equipment may
be included. For example, the system may
also include a magnetic code reader which
must receive a correctly coded instrument
such as a key or card to enable [sic} the
keyboard.
The passage I have italicised indicates the promise of the
invention concerns a specific and limited aspect of insecurity;
this will be of importance in dealing with the allegation of
inutility.
The complete specification then describes. one
pacticular embodiment of the invention by reference to the
accompanying drawings and goes on to detail the best modes for
carrying out the invention by reference to those drawings.
This is in compliance with the requirement of sub-s. 40 (1) of
the Patents Act that the full description of the invention
shall include "the best method of performing the invention
which is known to the applicant". In the course of submissions
on issues both of validity and of infringement, reference was
made to this portion of the specification, but it is
appropriate that I defer any treatment of it until I deal with
those submissions. However, I should at this stage set out
the final paragraph of the treatment of the preferred
embodiment, as an indication of the significance to be attached
to the embodiment:
It is accordingly to be understood that the
invention is in no way limited to the
details of the illustrated embodiment and
that many modifications and variations will
fall within the scope of the appended
claims.
The body of the specification concludes with the following:
INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY
Apparatus according to the invention may be
incorporated in any security system for
controlling physical access to a security
area or for controlling access to data
storage equipment and/or information stored
in such equipment.
It will be apparent from what I have said that the
problem to which the invention 1s directed concerns
conventional security devices using a keyboard or keypad, the
keys of which are selectively actuable to generate a code which
provides access to a particular facility. An example, to which
reference was made in the evidence, is provided by the type of
keyboard used in banks as part of a system permitting access by
customers to "automatic tellers", such keyboards containing a
configuration of ten keys in fixed physical relation each to
the others, each key bearing fixed on its face a number between
"oO" and "9", there being no duplication of numbers. In such
cases the selection by a person using the facility of a
particular sequence of keys representing a code for that person
may be observed by other persons who, if sufficiently
observant, might be able to arrive at the code.
The invention addresses the problem by providing for a
keyboard, each of the keys of each does not bear on its face a
fixed consecutive number; rather, a random number between "0"
10.
and "9" is assigned to each key on each activation of the
device. The code of the operator remains constant, but on
each activation of the device each number 1s assigned to a key
by a process of selection that is not deterministic but random,
and the device causes these changes to appear in the numbers
displayed on the keys in each activation of the device. The
location of each key that is pressed by a particular operator
may still be apparent to an observer but no key will display a
fixed number. Hence, security will be improved, because the
observer will not be able to detect the code of the operator
merely by noting the order in which the particular keys are
actuated.
The Clains
The invention is the subject of seven claims. Each is
for a "security apparatus", not for a method of achieving
security. The last claim is for a security apparatus
"substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the
accompanying drawings". I turn now to the text of the
remaining claims, numbered 1 to 6 inclusive, and in doing so
indicate that the debate before me turned in large measure upon
the construction of the portion of claim 1 set out below which
is italicised. The claims proceed in familiar fashion with a
progressive narrowing of the invention claimed, "the patentee
hoping that somewhere along the line he may find a claim
sufficiently narrow to be valid and sufficiently wide to catch
an infringer": Sir Arthur Dean, "Claiming Clauses" (1949) 4 Res
Judicatae 144 at 148. The text of claims 1-6 is as follows:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
11.
Security apparatus comprising:
a keyboard having an array of selectively
actuable keys;
k value designation means with a random number
e
enerator for generating random digits and a
memory storage tor storing the random digits in
successive locations of a digit storage array
corresponding to the array of the keys;
display means comprising an array of display
units, each corresponding to a respective key and
associated to a respective location of the digit
storage array and register means to register for
each key actuation the value designated to the
actuated key;
characterized in that a multiplexing circuit is
provided for successively transferring the random
digits from the locations of the digit storage
array to the respective associated display units
and that the register means comprises a
microprocessor detecting the location of a key in
the keyboard array as the key is actuated and
interrogating the multiplexing circuit to
register the current value of said key by
determining that location of the digit storage
array, which is associated to the display unit
corresponding to the actuated key, and entering
the digit stored in said location of the digit
storage array into a number store.
Security apparatus according to claim 1,
characterized in that the multiplexing circuit
provides a key actuation signal to the
microprocessor at the time the display unit
corresponding to the actuated key is switched by
the multiplexing circuit and the microprocessor
registers the current value of the actuated key
as being that digit in the digit sotrage [sic]
array which is displayed by the display means at
the time of the key actuation signal.
Security apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or
claim 2, characterized in that the display units
comprise light emitting diode or liquid crystal
displays.
Security apparatus as claimed in any of the
claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the display
units are located adjacent the respective keys.
Security apparatus as claimed in any of the
claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the key
value designation means is inoperative until an
additional key is actuated.
12.
(6) Security apparatus as claimed in any one of the
preceding claims, characterized in that there 1s
further provided comparator means to compare a
sequence of values entered into the number store
upon sequential operation of a number of said
keys with a sequence of values representing the
preselected code and output means conditioned by
the outcome of that comparison.
Expert evidence was presented primarily on affidavit,
and this was supplemented by oral evidence from Dr. A.K.
Burston and Professor J.R. Seberry (for the applicant) and Mr.
D.J. Morgan (for the respondents). There were differences in
emphasis between the opinions expressed by the experts on
various topics, but there were no conflicts of substance on the
meaning of the technical terms, the state of the prior art, or
the elements in the preferred embodiment of the invention.
Infringement
I deal first with the two Hirsch products. For the
purposes of this case, there is no relevant distinction or
difference between them.
The essential issue is whether, within the meaning of
claim 1, the Hirsch products contain a key value designation
means with a random number generator for generating random
digits, and a memory storage for storing the random digits in
successive locations of a digit storage array corresponding to
the array of the keys. It is agreed between the parties that
the Hirsch products have (i) a random number generator, (11)
for generating random digits, (iii) a memory storage, and that
13.
the memory storage stores random digits in locations
corresponding to the array of the keys. Nevertheless, the
respondents submit there 1s no infringement of claim i. That
submission is only to be understood by further consideration of
the nature and method of operation of the Hirsch products.
There was, I should indicate, no substantial difference between
the parties as to the description of the Hirsch products, the
debate being whether once their nature and operation is
understood, the Hirsch products are security apparatus
comprising the integers claimed in the crucial passage in claim
1.
Mr. Morgan, who gave evidence in a clear and concise
manner, described the nature and operation of the Hirsch
products as follows:
1. The device is switched on by the operation of a
key marked "start" and there is established an
initial configuration in the digit storage array
consisting of digits 1 to 9 and 0, in the order
corresponding to their consecutive positions on
the keypad.
2. Mr Morgan described each of these positions in
the initial configuration as a "pigeon hole" or
"location"; the initial configuration was
visually represented (in a sense metaphorically,
but usefully) as follows:
14.
T es
lst location 2nd location 3rd Location
1 2 3
r "| |
4th location Sth location 6th location
4 : 5 6
| ——
7th location 8th location 9th Location
= 7 8 9
Oth location
: J
ic
The devices contain a means for generating or
"seeding" random digits by operation of a
Programme in a microprocessor.
By this means there is generated a random number
being 0 or a number between 1 and 9; there
follows a process described as "swapping",
commencing with the Oth location, and following
with the lst and 2nd locations and so on.
If the first random number generated or "seeded"
was the digit 5, that digit would be placed in
Oth location and the zero would be "swapped" for
the number in the Sth location. A second digit
would then be generated by the random number
generator. On the assumption that this was 7,
7 would be placed in the ist location and the
number 1 would be placed in the 7th location.
15.
In this sense, there has been a "swap".
Likewise, if the next random number was 9, the
digit 9 would be swapped for the number in the
2nd location and the digit "2" would be placed in
the 9th location. This procedure is followed
until the configuration has been, as it were,
completely swapped. The process of 10 swaps was
described as Mr. Morgan as one shuffle.
This process is then repeated 7 times by what was
described as 7 shuffles.
At the end of each shuffle sequence, there 1s
always a digit storage array containing the
numbers 0 to 9 without duplication of any number.
What happens is that the order of the numbers is
changed by each shuffle.
It may happen in the course of a shuffle that the
random number generator produces a digit which is
the same digit as it has already produced in the
course of the same shuffle. For example, the
random number generator might produce for the lst
location, containing the digit 1, the digit 7,
which is in the 7th location. The digit 7 1n the
7th location is then swapped for the digit 1 in
the 1st location. Suppose the random number
generator then generates the number 7 for the 2nd
location, which contains the digit 2. There is
no difficulty. The number in the 7th location
(i.e. 1) is swapped for the digit in the 2nd
location, viz. the digit 2. There is thus, as
16.
Mr. Morgan explained, no special step needed to
deal with "duplication" in the way there is with
a device containing the preferred embodiment of
the Rehm invention. I shall deal further with
this question of duplication later in _ these
reasons.
9. If the process of swapping is on the 5th location
and the random number generator picks the digit
5, there is no problem. The digit can be swapped
with itself, in effect leaving it where it is.
Alternatively, it may be ignored and another
digit picked to make an actual swap for this
location; the process of swapping continues so
as to deal with the next location until each
location has been swapped and the _ shuffle
completed.
In his evidence, Mr. Morgan said under cross-
examination that "a random number generator is measured more by
its output than by the precise internal works. If it is
uniform on a domain, then it is a random number generator". He
was then asked "By 'uniform on a domain' you mean having equal
probability of generating any number within that domain?" He
responded "Yes - equal frequency, equal likelihood". The
domain, in the example I have been considering, is zero and the
numbers 1 - 9 inclusive.
If the shuffling was conducted in a deterministic
manner, then it might be fairly suggested that random numbers
17.
were not being generated by operation of the Hirsch device.
But I think that in the end Mr. Morgan agreed with senior
counsel for the applicant that the circumstance that the
numbers in the pigeon holes were arranged in the initial
configuration in a certain pattern before the first random
Mumber was generated and the swapping commenced did not, of
itself, mean that the operation of the system failed to satisfy
the description of:random number generation. As Professor
Seberry pointed out, whilst the initial configuration with the
Hirsch product is fixed, each location is filled at random by
each swap because the seed number used for the swap is randomly
generated by the programme in the microprocessor.
The submissions for the respondents, in effect, if not
in form, fasten upon the phrases "for generating random digits"
and "for storing the random digits" in claim 1 as indicating a
claim to no more than the generation of random digits that 1s
immediate and direct so that that which is generated is that
which is stored, with the result that there is no claim to the
generation of random digits involving (as is the case with the
Hirsch device) a series of steps in the course of which random
numbers are generated but each is not transferred directly to
the digit store.
The respondents pray in aid for this construction of
the claim two considerations flowing from material outside the
body of claim 1. The first concerns the description of the
preferred embodiment in the body of the complete specification.
That embodiment describes a device in which the digit storage
18.
array which (unlike the Hirsch device) contains no digits at
the start of operations; rather, the microprocessor generates
random digits or "seeds" between "0" and "9". In the words of
the preferred embodiment (with reference to drawings):
The random number generator generates a
first random digit which is transferred toa
digit store within the working member 25.
Successive digits are then taken from the
random number generator and, after rejection
of any duplicated digits, these are stored
at successive locations in the digit store
to build up a random sequence of the 10
digits 0 to 9.
The respondents submit that this assists their
suggested construction of claiml1. This treats the expression
"for generating random digits" and the expression "for storing
the random digits" as limited to the generation of the first
random digit and its direct transfer to a digit store, followed
by the generation of the second random digit with its transfer
directly to the digit store, and so on, subject only to the
rejection of duplicated digits and avoidance of an end result
whereby the configuration contained 10 locations but, for
example, the digit 3 appeared in two of them, and the digit 7
did not appear at all. (The passages in the preferred
embodiment dealing with rejection of duplicated digits are of
importance also in considering the attack on the validity of
claim 1 for want of fair basing; I deal with that aspect
later in these reasons. ]
The settled rule is that in ascertaining the width of
a particular claim, it is not permissible to vary or qualify
the plain and unambiguous meaning of the claim by reference to
19.
the body of the specification; provided that if an expression
in the claim is not clear, then it is permissible to resort to
the body of the specification to define or clarify the meaning
of the words used in the claim: Interlego AG v Toltoys Pty.
Ltd. (1973) 130 CLR 461 at 478-479. The use of the word "for"
in patent claims to introduce expressions such as "for
generating" and "for storing" has been deprecated: Blanco
White, "Patents for Inventions", 4th Ed., § 2-213. However,
the present is not a case which illustrates the concerns
expressed by the learned author. Further, whilst resort may be
had in the circumstances I have indicated to the body of the
specification, it also must be remembered that it usually is
not legitimate, in the absence of an express reference in the
claim itself, to import into a claim features of the preferred
embodiment. The preferred embodiment cannot properly be used
to introduce into the definite words of a claim an additional
definition or qualification of the patentee's invention:
Erickson's Patent (1923) 40 RPC 477 at 491. This (with some
justification) the applicant complains, is what is attempted by
the respondents' submission as to the significance of the
preferred embodiment in the construction of claim 1.
The second matter to which the respondents refer as an
aid to construction requires attention to claim 1 in its
original form, before it was amended in the course of
examination before grant in the Patent Office. Section 157A of
the Patents Act (formerly sub-s. 88 (3) of that statute) makes
this reference permissible, by providing that in construing a
complete specification as amended, the Court may refer to the
20.
specification without the amendment.
In its unamended form, the second paragraph of claim l
read:
Key value designation means to designate
values to the keys and including designation
scrambling means operative randomly to
scramble the designation of key values.
That paragraph was sufficiently widely expressed apparently to
catch the Hirsch device, because it encompassed any means of
scrambling the designation of key values. Then, the
respondents submit, it is clear that the amendment was made to
exclude all means of scrambling the designation of key values,
other than that means which is described in the preferred
embodiment.
Reference was made in the evidence to two Japanese
patent applications (No. 54-102844 and No. 54-102845, both
dated 13 August 1979) which were cited in the course of the
examination of the application which led to the grant of the
patent presently in suit. The Japanese prior art was described
and analysed in the evidence, particularly that of Dr. Burston
and Mr. Morgan. It differed markedly from the random
generation and selection found both in the preferred embodiment
in the patent, and in the Hirsch device, because it involved a
set of fixed ten value displays, one of which was selected by
the user; there was no device that generated a random pattern
of digits.
However, as the respondents agree, on one view of it
21.
in its unamended form, claim 1 would encompass the Japanese
prior art as well as the other means of scrambling the
designation of key values found in the Hirsch device and in the
preferred embodiment of the patent. In that setting, there is
much substance in the submission of the applicant that the
recasting of claim 1 may have been in response to the citation
of the Japanese material and that this, to put it broadly, was
achieved by introducing a computer based mechanism in contrast
to the unintelligent mechanism presented by the citations of
prior art emanating from Japan.
For these reasons, I place no significant weight upon
the two special factors referred to by the respondents as
favouring their construction of claim 1.
I turn now as to the submissions as to construction by
the applicant. The applicant submitted that there was
infringement on the proper reading of the claim, without resort
to any body of special learning by which there may be liability
without "textual" infringement in a direct or immediate sense.
The applicant's argument proceeded by the following steps:
(a) claim 1, like the other claims, is not for a
method of achieving or improving security, but
for a security apparatus;
(b) that apparatus comprises, inter alia, a key value
designation means with (i) a random number
generator for generating random digits and with
(ii) a memory storage for storing the random
digits (i.e. the digits generated as described)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(£)
(g)
22.
in successive locations of a digit storage array
corresponding to the array of the keys;
there will be a random number generator for
generating random digits if the product 1s random
digits and the precise algorithm for generating
the random digits that are stored in the memory
storage is not a matter of concern;
this is so even if the generation of the digits
stored in the digit storage array comprises more
than one stage or step (as is the case with the
swapping and shuffling in the operation of the
Hirsch device) such that each step itself might
be described as generating random numbers;
the word successive describes the relation of the
locations each to the others, the locations taken
as a configuration corresponding to the array of
the keys;
it is not to the point that the procedure for
generating and storing digits does not operate so
that all steps are gone through to produce and
store one such digit, and then repeated to
produce the next digit, and so on; it is enough
that all such digits are produced and stored,
without the temporal limitation or sequence I
have described;
accordingly, it is not of concern that in the
course of random number generation, one puts
random numbers in "locations" and then overrides
or replaces them with other random numbers; one
23.
still has a random number generator' that
generates those random digits which are the
digits stored in the memory storage, within the
meaning of claim 1.
I accept those submissions. It follows, in my view,
that the claim for infringement of claim 1 is made out.
The applicant also urged there was infringement of
claim 7. This, as I have indicated, claims "security apparatus
substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the
accompanying drawings". The operational sequence is
illustrated by the flow sheet in figure 7, and I have set out
that passage from the body of the specification dealing with
the preferred embodiment which details the method of generation
of random numbers and the transfer to the digit store. It is
apparent from what I have there said that there is absent from
any security apparatus described by reference to _ the
accompanying drawings, the features of swapping and shuffling
which I have described when dealing with the Hirsch device.
The question is whether the Hirsch device is nevertheless a
security apparatus substantially as described in the body of
the specification with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The terms of claim 7 succeed in incorporating the
drawings into the claim: Raleigh Cycle Co. Ltd. v Miller & Co.
Ltd. (1948) 65 RPC 141; Utilux Pty. Ltd. v AMP Incorporated
(1974) 48 ALJR 17 at 20. The preferred embodiment, read with
the drawings (particularly figure 7), makes 1t quite plain
24.
that, as an essential feature, the claimed device takes
successive digits seeded by the random number generator and
after rejection of any duplicated digits (in the sense I have
earlier described) each digit is stored at successive locations
in the digit store. This is not what takes place with the
swapping and shuffling procedures in the Hirsch products.
The applicant submitted that, nevertheless, the two
devices, the Hirsch and that described in the preferred
embodiment, operate in the same way in the sense that the user
enters a code and a microprocessor works out the numbers to be
associated with the keys; what was involved in the working out
of the numbers was, it was said, so closely similar as not to
be substantially different. In my view, to approach the
matter in this fashion is to do so at too general a level of of
abstraction and comparison. I say this bearing in mind the
force of the term "substantially" as appearing in claim 7:
Monsanto Company v Commissioner of Patents (1974) 48 ALJR 59;
Blanco White, "Patents For Inventions", 4th Ed., § 2-209; Fox,
"Canadian Patent Law and Practice", 4th Ed., p. 359.
Nor, in my view, is this a case where the differences
presented by the swapping and shuffling procedures in the
Hirsch device may be characterised as a subterfuge and an
attempt to take full advantage of the invention while avoiding
trespass upon the literal meaning of the claim by a
modification so small as to be insignificant and to have no
material effect upon the way the invention as claimed in claim
7 works: Commonwealth Industrial Gases Ltd. v M.W.A. Holdings
25.
Pty. Ltd. (1970) 44 ALJR 385 at 388 per Menzies J. As senior
counsel for the respondents pointed out, the facts in Catnic
Components Ltd. v Hill and Smith Ltd. [1982] RpPc 183, are
illustrative of the type of situation with which Menzies J. had
been dealing in the Australian case. The remarks of Lord
Diplock ([{1982] RPC at 242-243) as to "purposive" rather than
"purely literal" construction, may be understood in that light.
It may be for this reason that in Populin v H.B. Nominees Pty.
Ltd. (1982) 59 FLR 37 at 42-43, the Full Court of this Court
in essence treated the House of Lords as having confirmed that
what is called for in construing claims 1s a common sense
assessment of what the words used convey, in the context of the
then-existing published knowledge, and did not treat their
Lordships as having propounded any novel principle or new
category of "non-textual" infringement; cf. Rhone-Poulenc
Agrochimie SA v UIM Chemical Services Pty. Ltd. (1986) 12 FCR
477 at 496-497.
There being no "textual" infringement, the question
remains whether the substance of the invention as claimed in
claim 7 has been taken. In my view, the essential integers of
claim 7 include the generation of random digits as described in
the passage I set out earlier, detailing the preferred
embodiment, with the rejection of duplicate digits as therein
indicated. This conclusion is enforced by the flow-sheet
drawings in Figure 7 showing the operational sequence of the
microprocessor based circuit of the preferred embodiment.
This may be contrasted with the integers of the Hirsch
products. The current state of the law in Australia as to the
26.
"pith and marrow" doctrine is discussed in Populin v H.B.
Nominees Pty. Ltd. (1982) 59 FLR 37 at 41-43. The effect of
the structure and sequence of the claims in the subject patent
is progressively to narrow the area of monopoly claimed. The
form of claim 7 is to leave open and unclaimed what has been
done with security apparatus which includes the swapping and
shuffling integers of the Hirsch products. The "pith and
marrow" doctrine, therefore, does not bring the respondents
within the field of infringement of claim 7.
I turn now to the question of validity.
Fair Basing
The respondents submit that claim 1 of the patent is
not fairly based on the matter described in the body of the
complete specification.
Section 40 of the Patents Act, so far as is material,
provides:
40. (1) A complete specification -
(a) shall fully describe the
invention, including the best
method of performing the invention
which is known to the applicant;
and
(b) shall end with a claim or claims
defining the invention.
(2) The claim or claims shall be clear and
succinct and shall be fairly based on
the matter described in the
specification.
27.
The phrase "fairly based" appears in other provisions
of the Patents Act. In s. 45, 1t appears in a context
concerned with the priority dates of claims in a complete
specification allegedly fairly based on matter disclosed ina
provisional specification. It was with s. 45 in an earlier
form, and with analogous British legislation, that Fullagar J.
and Lloyd-Jacob J., respectively, were concerned in Societe des
Usines Chimiques Rhone-Poulenc v Commissioner of Patents (1958)
100 CLR 5, Re Mond Nickel Company Ltd.'s Application [1956] RPC
189 at 194, and Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd.'s Application
[1960] RPC 223 at 228. In sub-s. 45A (2), the phrase "fairly
based" is directed to the fixing of the priority date of the
claim in certain petty patent specifications by reference to
earlier applications. This Court was concerned with s. 45A in
Coopers Anima) Health Australia Ltd. v Western Stock
Distributors Pty. Ltd. (1986) 67 ALR 390; affd. (1987) 76 ALR
429. In 8s. 141 of the Patents Act, the expression "fairly
based" is used to describe the necessary relationship between a
claim made in an Australian complete specification or petty
patent specification and matter disclosed in a _ basic
application which has been made in a "Convention country"
within the meaning of Part XVI. It was with the term in this
latter setting that Gibbs J. dealt in F. Hoffman La Roche & Co.
AG v Commissioner of Patents (1971) 123 CLR 529 at 538-539.
It has been pointed out that the question of "fair
basing" of a claim upon the body of a complete specification
{involving a comparison within the one document) is not
altogether analogous to questions of "fair basing" of claims
28.
upon earlier documents, such as a provisional specification or
basic application: Blanco White, "Patents For Inventions", 4th
Ed., § 2-115. Nevertheless, it was accepted by the parties
before me that what was said in the cases I have mentioned gave
a guide to the approach that should be taken in dealing with
sub-s. 40 (1), although the comparison is not between documents
but within different parts of the one document.
I should add that s. 35 of the Patents Act 1903
stipulated that the provisional specification must "fairly
describe the nature of the invention", and s. 36 stated that
the complete specification must "fully describe and ascertain
the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed,
and must end with a distinct statement of the invention
claimed". The requirement of "fair basing" of claims upon
matter disclosed in the body of the specification or in some
other document was introduced into the present Patents Act from
British law, though its origins in that country are by no means
clear: Blanco White, "Patents for Inventions", 4th Ed., §
2-117.
In Societe des Usines Chimiques Rhone-Poulenc v
Commissioner of Patents (supra) Fullagar J. (at 11) spoke of
the necessity for "a real and reasonably clear disclosure".
In my view, it is this characteristic which makes the claim
"fairly" based on that disclosure: cf. Coopers Animal Health
Australia Ltd. v Western Stock Distributors Pty. Ltd. (1987) 76
ALR 429 at 447-448. As will become apparent, whilst accepting
what Fullagar J. had said, the present respondents in effect
29.
pitched the standard rather higher in their submissions.
The criteria propounded by Lloyd-Jacob J. and approved
and adapted by Gibbs J., in the authorities to which I have
earlier referred, express in more detail the general approach
indicated by Fullagar J. Adapting those criteria to s. 40 of
the Patents Act, one asks the following:
(1) Is the alleged invention as claimed in claim 1
broadly (i.e. in a general sense) described in
the body of the specification?
(2) Is there anything in the body of the
specification which is inconsistent with the
alleged invention as claimed in claim 1?
(3) Does claim 1 include as a characteristic of the
invention a feature as to which the body of the
specification is wholly silent?
More succinctly, Mr. Blanco White QC would ask whether "the
idea" of the invention claimed in the claim in question was to
be found in the body of the specification: "Patents For
Inventions", 4th Ed., § 2-111.
In the present case, the respondents submitted that
there was a want of fair basing for two reasons.
First, they submitted that if in the body of the
specification it is stated as a requirement that there be a
means of avoiding duplication of digits, and that if claim 1 on
its proper construction contains no such requirement, it
follows claim 1 is not fairly based because a device with or
30.
without any means of avoiding the duplication of digits would
be within claim 1 and this meant claim 1 was for an invention
more widely delimited than the invention described in the body
of the specification. I have earlier in these reasons
described how the Hirsch products deal with the possibility of
duplication.
Secondly, they submitted that if there is in the body
of the specification a requirement for a viewing restriction
and if no such requirement is contained in claim 1, on its
proper construction, it follows that claim 1 1s not fairly
based. This is said to be because what 1s claimed, viz. a
device with or without any viewing restriction to prevent the
display being read by persons other than those directly in
front of the display, is "wider" than the invention described
in the body of the specification.
The preferred embodiment, in referring to the drawings
figure 1 and figure 2, states that a person operating the
keyboard "must look straight down the tubes 22 to read the
characters displayed". This is an importation of a viewing
restriction and it may be correct that this is an essential
integer in claim 7. That, however, does not necessarily mean
that claim 1 is not fairly based on matter disclosed in the
body of the specification. The respondents referred to
passages in Coopers Animal Health Australia Ltd. v Western
Stock Distributors Pty. Ltd. (1986) 67 ALR 390 at 406. There,
the question concerned the claim in a petty patent and the
issue was one of fair basing of that claim upon matter
31.
disclosed in the provisional specification for a standard
patent: sub-s. 45A (2) and s. 51. The question was
approached by asking whether an essential integer of the claim
was an essential integer of the invention described in the
provisional specification.
I accept the submission of counsel for the applicant
that when the question is one of fair basing of a claim upon
matter disclosed either in the body of the specification or in
a provisional specification, it is not appropriate and is,
indeed, misleading to seek to isolate in the body of the
specification or in the provisional specification "essential
integers" which correspond with the essential integers in the
claim in question. I should add that the applicant directed
no such criticism to the treatment of "fair basing" in the Full
Court: (1987) 76 ALR 429.
It is important when dealing with "fair basing" to
bear in mind the different functions served by the body of a
specification and the claims. As s. 40 itself indicates, the
task of the body of the specification is fully to describe the
invention including the best method of performing it known to
the applicant. The description primarily is addressed to
"all and sundry who may wish to construct the device after the
patent has expired": Ludlow Jute Co. v Low (1953) 70 RPC 69 at
76. #='The function of the claims is to define the invention and
mark out the ambit of the patentee's monopoly, and primarily is
addressed to potential rivals: see generally Fox, "Canadian
Patent Law and Practice", 4th Ed., pp., 165-166, 193-196. The
32.
circumstance that something is a requirement for the best
method of performing an invention does not make 1t necessarily
a requirement for all claims; likewise, the circumstance that
material is part of the description of the invention does not
mean that it must be included as an integer of each claim.
Rather, the question is whether there is a real and reasonably
clear disclosure in the body of the specification of what is
then claimed, so that the alleged invention as claimed is
broadly, that is to say in a general sense, described in the
body of the specification.
In his final address on this issue, senior counsel for
the respondents gave the impression somewhat of resiling from
reliance upon what had been said in Coopers Animal Health
Australia Ltd. v Western Stock Distributors Pty. Ltd. (supra)
at first instance, in favour of a somewhat different
proposition. This was that whilst 1t does not have to be
specific, the inventor has to tell the reader "what 1s
involved essentially" in his invention, so that one then asks
whether the alleged invention as claimed is broadly described
in the body of the specification, having regard to the
essential character of the invention as described therein.
Even that proposition, in my view, distorts the first of the
propositions propounded in the judgments of Lloyd-Jacob J. and
Gibbs J. to which I have referred. The inquiry in the present
case is as I have expressed it in the immediately preceding
paragraph.
I have earlier in this judgment set out the provisions
33.
of much of the body of the specification, including the
consistory clause. That clause is reflected in claim 7.
However, in my judgment, on its proper construction, claim 1
does not claim a viewing restriction means. I have set out
earlier in these reasons the concluding paragraph of the
passage which contains the preferred embodiment, with the
statement therein that the invention is in no way limited to
the details of the preferred embodiment. One of those details
in the preferred embodiment concerns the restriction of
viewing, as described in figures 1 and 2. Applying the
principles I have described, it 1s not correct to deny for this
reason that claim 1 is fairly based on the material disclosed
in the body of the specification.
I return now to the first ground urged by the
respondents as disclosing a want of fair basing. The passage
from the preferred embodiment, which I have set out when
dealing with infringement makes it plain that the particular
means of rejecting duplication of digits is an essential
integer in claim 7. However, in my view, there 1s lacking in
claim 1 any essential integer directed to the prevention of
configurations with duplication of digits. This follows from
what I said earlier in these reasons when dealing with
infringement of claim 1. Bearing in mind the principles I
have earlier discussed, in my view it is not correct that the
invention as claimed in claim 1, without specification therein
of a means of rejecting duplicated digits, is not "fairly
based" on matter described in the body of the specification.
34.
Inutility
The respondents do not suggest that claim 1 may lack
utility simply for want of commercial practicality in results
achieved by the invention so claimed: Bannon, "Australian
Patent Law", § 156. The respondents rely for inutility of
claim 1 on two grounds.
First, it: is submitted that a device according to
claim 1 does not contain any viewing restriction as I have
earlier discussed, and that a device according to claim 1
containing scrambled digits will still not be useful for the
purpose claimed if the values of the keys in use can be read by
an observer other than the operator of the device. It is
submitted that what must be considered is the usefulness of the
device as claimed for the purpose claimed, viz. for the purpose
of ensuring that it cannot be used by an observer not being the
operator. The device as claimed was contrasted with the
Hirsch products which contain a sophisticated viewing
restriction means which greatly limits the angles from which
the display may be observed by persons other than the operator.
The basic principle has been formulated as follows in
Fawcett v Homan (1896) 13 RPC 398 at 405 per Lindley LJ:
If an invention does what it 1s intended by
the Patentee to do, and the end attained is
itself useful, the invention is a useful
invention.
What the invention is intended to do is a matter to be
gathered from the title and the whole of the specification:
35.
Blanco White, "Patents for Inventions", § 4-403. A distinction
may be drawn between a case where a patentee claims a result
and bases his claim on the production of that result and the
case where a patentee merely points to certain advantages that
will accrue from the use of his invention: Fox, "Canadian
Patent Law and Practice", 4th Ed., pp. 152-154.
The title of the patent is "improvements in security
means". The body of the specification commences with a
statement of the problem, viz. that none of the existing types
of access control systems have been particularly satisfactory
and in particular a previous proposal to provide an access
control system incorporating a manually actuable keyboard the
keys of which were selectively actuable to generate a code
which, if correct, would provide the necessary access, suffered
a disadvantage in that it would still be possible for an
observer to note the combination of keys actuated by the
authorised person.
It is then said that the present invention provides
*an improved keyboard security apparatus by which this problem
is overcome". I take the reference to "this problem" being
"overcome"to be a reference to the possibility for an observer
to note the combination of keys actuated by an authorised
person. However, this passage has to be read by a passage,
after the intervening consistory clause, as follows:
In the operation of the above described
apparatus the random scrambling of the
designated key values prevents an observer
from detecting a correct code merely by
noting the order in which the particular
keys are actuated since the position of the
36.
keys for the correct code will be changed.
In a simple access control system, access
may be obtained solely by operation of the
keyboard. In more sophisticated systems
however additional security equipment may be
included .
The phrase "from detecting a correct code merely by
noting the order in which the particular keys are actuated" is
significant. It indicates that the promise of the invention
is to deal with a particular type of insecurity, viz. the
breaking of a code merely by noting the order in which the keys
are actuated. The evidence indicated that there are many
different degrees of security which can be required, and many
different ways in which security might be achieved. However,
the promise of the invention is concerned with a particular
aspect of security, the breaking of the code by the noting of
the order in which the keys are pressed. It is in the light of
this that one has to consider the question of utility, and the
question is whether in the sense of patent law the device 1s
useless for that purpose. The circumstances that an even
greater improvement in security might be obtained by the
addition of a restricted viewing means, such as that which is
present in the Hirsch products, does not mean that the
invention as claimed in claim 1 is not useful, or that it does
not attain the object of the invention.
In my view, the attack on utility based on this ground
fails.
The other ground urged for inutility concerns the
37.
treatment in claim 1 and in the body of the specification of
the avoidance of duplication of digits. The submissions for
the respondents on this branch of the case proceed by the
following steps:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
A device according to claim 1, on its true
construction, does not contain any means for
avoiding duplication of digits.
It follows that a display generated by a device
according to claim 1 may not contain some digits
in a user code number.
For a 4-digit code number, the probability that
one or more the digits in that code will be
missing from any given display is such that on
average a user would have to bring up more than
5 displays before the user would find a display
in which there were present all 4 digits of the
code. In the case of a S-digit code, the
probability is that on average, the user would
have to bring up 12 or more displays before the
user found a display with all the digits of the
code present; the corresponding number of
displays for 6, 7 and 8-digit codes, is 30 or
more displays, 88 or more displays and 326 or
more displays, respectively. [I should add that
the evidence also showed that if no steps were
taken to avoid duplication, the device claimed in
claim 1 would permit entry of a 3-digit code
after an average of 2 displays.)
If any device falling within the terms of claim 1
38.
is not useful for the purpose of the invention,
the whole claim is invalid and because 7 and
8-digit codes fall within claim 1 so as to give
obviously useless embodiments, the device 1s not
useful for that purpose. Hence, claim 1 1s
invalid for inutility.
The applicant submitted that the Court should be
extremely reluctant to place a construction upon a claim that
would render it invalid as including embodiments that a
qualified reader would recognise as being obviously useless.
The applicant referred to the treatment in the preferred
embodiment itself of the avoidance of digit duplication; it
submitted that normally a construction will be adopted which
treats the avoidance of such useless embodiments as something
left by the draftsman to the reader of the specification to
settle for himself. In support of this proposition, the
applicant relied upon Welch and Perrin & Co. Pty. Ltd. v Worrel
(1961) 106 CLR 588 at 601-602. There, in the course of
discussing Norton & Gregory Ltd. v Jacobs (1937) 54 RPC 271 at
276, Menzies J. said that what was said in the earlier case by
Greene MR did not mean that a specification should be construed
in a way that any sensible person would appreciate would lead
to unworkability when it could be given a more limited meaning.
In Washex Machinery Corporation v Roy Burton & Co.
Pty. Ltd. (1974) 49 ALJR 12, Stephen J. considered an
allegation of inutility in respect of a claim for a machine
designed to wash and damp dry materials by immersing them in
39.
water or other cleaning liquid, subjecting them to rotary
tumbling action and then, by the application of high
centrifugal forces, driving off the washing liquids leaving the
materials clean and damp. The machine worked at low speed in
the washing operation, and at high speed in the extraction.
Over the full range of speeds, it was necessary to avoid
vibration.
The allegation was that claim 1 of the patent in suit
was invalid because it failed to require that there be such a
difference between the critical speed and the extraction speed
as to ensure effective vibration isolation. Stephen J. said
(at p. 18):
The evidence does make it clear that the
latter must be considerably in excess of the
former if the advantages of avoiding
operation at critical speed are to be gained
and claim 1 does no more than require
critical speed to be less than the speed of
extraction. However, the need in
determining operating speeds, to avoid by a
wide margin the critical speed, has long
been common knowledge in the art and call
for no statement to that effect ina claim.
The claim states that during the extraction
cycle the extraction speed is to be in
excess of critical speed and it is no part
of its function as a claim to go on to
specify a minimum speed separation between
the two; the failure to do so does not, in
my view, amount to inutility.
In Washex Machinery Corporation v Roy Burton & Co.
Pty. Ltd. (supra), there was a further attack made on claim 1
for inutility. There was said to be a failure to give effect
to one object of the invention, viz. the provision of a machine
in which the mass distribution of the load, axially of the
40.
cleaning unit, need not be uniform. The evidence was that
during operation, any uneven distribution of load tended to
correct itself, but that in some circumstances malfunction
might occur. His Honour said (at 19) that to postulate such a
happening was not an appropriate mode of testing utility and
referred to what had been said by Menzies J. 1n Welch Perrin &
Co. Pty. Ltd. v Worrel (supra) at 602.
I should also set out the following passage (omitting
footnotes) from the Mr. Blanco White's work (4th Ed., § 4-408):
Claim including that which is not useful
It follows from what has been said that it
is often a convenient test of the utility of
the invention contained in a claim to
consider whether the claim includes forms of
the invention which are not useful, but that
this test must be applied with very great
caution. The function of a claim is to
delimit the monopoly given by the patent,
not to give instructions for the working of
the invention, and it is consequently not
Necessary that the claim should contain
these instructions; even the body of the
specification is required to contain only
those instructions that the reader cannot
supply for himself. It would be
unreasonable to expect the claims to contain
more. A distinction should accordingly be
drawn between cases in which the invention
claimed is not useful unless an additional
feature or features be added to those
claimed (the claim then being invalid), and
cases where the qualifications and
expedients necessary to make the article
claimed work can be, and on a_ true
construction of the claim are, left to the
reader to supply for himself. Since in
cases where the reader can make the thing
work the courts tend wherever possible to
construe claims as requiring him to do so,
it is not in practice enough to ask whether
the claim includes things that are not
useful; it is necessary to ask also whether
there is anything in the language of the
claim positively pointing to some useless
construction. The successful utility
attacks are nearly always in cases of that
41.
sort. Examples are: where a claim
specifies two alternative processes or
constructions of mechanism, of which only
one 1s useful; or the claim specifies the
use of any of a group of chemical compounds,
and it is not substantially true that all
will work; or the claim includes a series
of constructions, and only certain members
of the series are useful; Or more
generally, the claim contains a limitation
directed to a particular feature and further
limitation of that same feature is needed
for utility; or the feature needed for
effective working is expressly made optional
- as when it is added by a subsidiary claim.
In the present case, in the course of his
cross-examination by senior counsel for the respondents, Dr.
Burston said the following:
My interpretation of the claims, making what
I consider an intelligent understanding of
what they mean, is that in fact the random
number generator is only generating a digit
from the set that remains. For instance, if
you have 9, 8 and 7, what is referred to as
a random number generator is in fact
generating a number between zero and six at
that stage. The point is that when you
start off with an array empty, you have a
choice of ten digits and the random number
generator will generate a digit 0 to 9 which
will be put in your first pidgeon hole.
That is then eliminated as a digit you want
to consider for allocating in the second
pidgeon hole. My impression would be then
as part of the random number generator
mechanism you would generate one of the
remaining nine, restricting it by
eliminating number duplicates. Does that
answer the question?
Yes, you agree that are no express words
relating to avoiding duplication?
There are no express words relating to
avoiding duplication.
You rely on the fact that there is some
reference to the avoidance of duplication in
the body of the specification?
No, I would rely on the fact that an
intelligent reader would immediately assume
42.
there would be no duplication.
Further, in her affidavit, Professor Seberry deposed that claim
1 of the patent in suit provided for the main feature of the
patent, viz. that "the numbers zero to nine without duplication
[italics supplied] will be produced in random sequence and
allocating in such random sequence to a keyboard having ten
keys". She was not cross-examined on this understanding of
the invention claimed.
Accordingly, in my view, there is the evidentiary
foundation for the conclusion that a qualified reader would not
place a construction on claim 1 as including embodiments that
were obviously useless; the claim does not positively point to
some useless construction. The present 1s a case where the
qualifications and expedients necessary to avoid duplication of
digits are left to the qualified reader to _ supply.
Accordingly, I accept the submission for the applicant that
claim 1 is not lacking in utility for failure to specify a
means of avoiding duplication of digits.
Conclusions
In summary, the conclusions I have reached are that
claim 1 is infringed, claim 7 is not infringed, and claim 1 is
not invalid either for want of fair basing or for inutility.
As indicated earlier in these reasons, I will stand
the proceedings over to a date convenient to the parties for
consideration of the further conduct of the matter, and the
43.
making of any final orders that can be made at that stage.
However, I should point out that it may be that an
outstanding inquiry as to damages may result in any injunctive
relief being in the meantime interlocutory; see Computer Edge
Pty. Ltd. v Apple Computer Inc. (1984) 54 ALR 767 at 768, and
the discussion thereof by Lockhart J. in A.C.I. Australia Ltd.
v Glamour Glaze Pty. Ltd. (22 April 1968, unrep., p. 22).
I certify that this and the forty two (42)
preceding pages are a true copy of the
Reasons for Judgment of his Honour Mr.
Justice Gummow.
Date: 20 May 1988.
Counsel and Solicitors for Dr. I. Emmerson QC and
the Applicant: J. Allsop.
Freehill, Hollingdale & Page.
Counsel and Solicitors for T. Simos QC and
the Respondents: A. Bowne.
Hill, Thomson & Sullivan.
Date of Hearing: 11, 12, 13, 14 April 1988.
Date of Judgment: 20 May 1988.