58
Opinion of the Court
began to run before that date, Pfaff lost his right to patent his invention.
Pfaff commenced work on the socket in November 1980, when representatives of Texas Instruments asked him to develop a new device for mounting and removing semiconductor chip carriers. In response to this request, he prepared detailed engineering drawings that described the design, the dimensions, and the materials to be used in making the socket. Pfaff sent those drawings to a manufacturer in February or March 1981.
Prior to March 17, 1981, Pfaff showed a sketch of his concept to representatives of Texas Instruments. On April 8, 1981, they provided Pfaff with a written confirmation of a previously placed oral purchase order for 30,100 of his new sockets for a total price of $91,155. In accord with his normal practice, Pfaff did not make and test a prototype of the new device before offering to sell it in commercial quantities.3
The manufacturer took several months to develop the customized tooling necessary to produce the device, and Pfaff did not fill the order until July 1981. The evidence therefore indicates that Pfaff first reduced his invention to practice in the summer of 1981. The socket achieved substantial com-3 At his deposition, respondent's counsel engaged in the following colloquy with Pfaff:
"Q. Now, at this time [late 1980 or early 1981] did we [sic] have any prototypes developed or anything of that nature, working embodiment?
"A. No.
"Q. It was in a drawing. Is that correct?
"A. Strictly in a drawing. Went from the drawing to the hard tooling. That's the way I do my business.
"Q. 'Boom-boom'?
"A. You got it.
"Q. You are satisfied, obviously, when you come up with some drawings that it is going to go—'it works'?
"A. I know what I'm doing, yes, most of the time." App. 96-97.
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