WITTY AND ORS. V. TURBON ENGINEERING COMPANY PTY. LTD.

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

WITTY AND ORS.

Ve

TURBON ENGINEERING COMPANY PTY, LTD.

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

Judgment delivered at Sydney

on TUESDAY, 7th NOVEMBER 1961.

Court

Parties

Nature of Proceedings

Members of Bench

Order of the Court

Date of Judgment

Delivered

Queensland Writ No. 12 of 1961

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT,

High Court of Australia, Brisbane Registry.

Witty and Others v. Turbon Engineering Company Pty. Ltd.

Action for infringement of a patent by the plaintiffsand counterclaim for revocation of the said patent by the defendant.

Kitto J.

Action dismissed

On the defendant's counterclaim, order that Patent No. 148,442 be revoked in so far as

it relates to the claims numbered respectively 1, 2, 3, 7 and 20 of the complete specification, and order that the plaintiffs lodge at the Patent Office a disclaimer of the said claims,

Order that the plaintiffs pay the defendant's costs of the action and of the counterclaim

7th November, 1961,

Sydney.

WITTY AND OTHERS Ve

TURBON ENGINEERING COMPANY PTY LTD

This is an action for infringement of a patent.

It was commenced in the Supreme Court of Queensland and was removed into this Court by s, 116 (1) of the Patents Act 1952-1960 (Cth), the defendant having applied by way of counterclaim for the revocation of the patent.

The patent, No. 148,412, was scaled on 13th May 1960, a complete specifiention having beon Indeed under s, 63A of the Patents Act 1903-1950 (Cth) in respect of two provisional specifications for cognate inventions. The date of the carlier application was 4th February 1949, and that is the priority date as at which validity is to be considercd in respect of all the claims that come into question in this action, except onc, The claims to be considered as at that date are claims 1, 2, 3 and 7. The exception is claim 20, the priority date of which is 12th October 1949: see s, 63A of the Patents Act 1903-1950 and ss. 5 (3) and (4) of the Patents Act 1952=1960,