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On April 22, 1986, Mr. Podd, as president of Powertex, wrote to
Attorney Kenneth L. King of the law firm Scully, Scott, Murphy &
Presser in Garden City, New York, to request that the firm represent
him and Powertex in filing patent applications for the inventions
resulting from the modifications which had been made to the Sea Bulk
liner in order to ship PTA.
During June 1986, further changes were made to the liner based
upon tests conducted at Amoco's Belgian plant, which included
improving the triangular diagonals to ensure that the liner fell
into place against the walls and floor of the container, installing
bungee cords on the sides of the liner, and adding bracing at the
rear bulkhead to prevent it from bulging upon discharge.
During July 1986, Powertex supplied Amoco with 2 or 3 modified
liners which were loaded with PTA and shipped to Amoco's customers
in Taiwan. Upon unloading, however, the liners completely failed,
resulting in total loss of the PTA shipment. During July and August
of 1986, several modified liners supplied by Powertex were loaded
with PTA and shipped to Amoco's customers in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Those liners also failed to unload properly, however, because
several hundred pounds of PTA remained inside the container.
In response to such problems, the liner was modified by (1)
changing the angles of the triangles to allow the PTA to more easily
flow out upon unloading; (2) removing the front bulkhead and
replacing it with a wooden nailing strip laminated to the liner; (3)
adding "shake-out straps" to assist in removing the PTA; and (4)
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