The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a
summary judgment finding of non-infringement, ruling that the replacement of the
mold and carrier plate of an injection molding system was a permissible repair
rather than an impermissible reconstruction. Husky Injection Molding Sys.,
Ltd. v. R&D Tool & Eng’g Co., Case No. 01-1346 (Fed. Cir. May 17,
2002).
R&D had purchased one of Husky’s injection molding
systems and informed the Husky salesman of its intent to use the system to make
replacement molds. Husky then sued R&D for contributory infringement of its
patented injection molding system that uses a carrier plate that corresponds to
a design-specific mold.
In the injection molding system, the carrier plate allows
preforms to be removed from the mold before the preform is completely cool.
Since the cooling process is the time-limiting step in the injection mold
process, moving the preform out of the mold for cooling increases production
rates. If a
