Zenith Radio Corporation v. Hazeltine Research, Inc. (1970)
- Docket
- 80
- Decided
- 1970-01-01
- Category
- General
Summary
Question: Should Hazeltine's parent corporation be bound by the District Court's judgment? Was Zenith injured by Hazeltine's conspiracy with foreign patent pools? Conclusion: No, Yes as to Canada. In a 7-1 decision Justice Byron R. White delivered the opinion of the court, affirming the Court of Appeals decision to vacate the judgments against Hazeltine's parent corporation. The Supreme Court also held that damages were only proper with respect to the Canadian market because it was the only market in which Zenith had sustained injury. The Supreme Court reinstated the District Court's injunction against Hazeltine's conspiracy to restrict trade in foreign markets. The Supreme Court remanded the case to the Court of Appeals to determine whether Hazeltine conditioned the grant of its licenses on the payment of royalties for unpatented products. Justice John M. Harlan concurred in part and dissented in part, objecting to the majority's apparent double standard that royalties provisions that measure royalties by a percentage of the licensees sales is lawful if included for the convenience of both parties, but unlawful if insisted on by the patentee.