Cite as: 508 U. S. 83 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
justifies such a result here. The patents at issue have been the subject of three separate lawsuits, and both parties have asked the Federal Circuit to resolve their ongoing validity dispute. Pp. 102-103. 959 F. 2d 948, vacated and remanded.
Stevens, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court with respect to Parts I, II, and III, and the opinion of the Court with respect to Part IV, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and White, Blackmun, O'Connor, Kennedy, and Thomas, JJ., joined. Scalia, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in which Souter, J., joined, post, p. 103.
Charles F. Schill argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the brief was Larry L. Shatzer II.
Gordon R. Coons argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were John E. Rosenquist, Jeffrey S. Ward, and Gerald K. White.*
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court. The question presented is whether the affirmance by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit of a finding that a patent has not been infringed is a sufficient reason for vacating a declaratory judgment holding the patent invalid.
Respondent, Morton International, Inc. (Morton), is the owner of two patents on chemical compounds used in polyvinyl chloride (PVC).1 In 1983 Morton filed this action in the
*J. Michael McWilliams, Jack C. Goldstein, and William C. Rooklidge filed a brief for the American Bar Association as amicus curiae urging reversal.
Briefs of amici curiae were filed for the American Intellectual Property Law Association by Joseph R. Re, William L. LaFuze, Nancy J. Linck, Harold C. Wegner, and H. Ross Workman; and for Atochem North America, Inc., by Brian G. Brunsvold, Herbert H. Mintz, Richard B. Racine, and Michael D. Kaminski.
1 United States Patent No. 4,062,881, dated December 13, 1977, and No. 4,120,845, dated October 17, 1978. The two patents are directed to organ-otin mercaptoalkyl carboxylic acid ester sulfides—basically, compounds of sulfur and tin that serve as heat stabilizers for PVC, protecting it from decomposition, discoloration, and loss of strength. See 959 F. 2d 948, 949, and n. 1 (CA Fed. 1992).
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