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Russell v. Place | 94 U.S. (4 Otto) 606 (1876)

Collateral estoppel, or issue preclusion, is a tool that allows judges to efficiently dispose of factual and legal issues that were already litigated and central to a prior decision. Estoppel helps avoid repetitive lawsuits, sustain judicial resources, and maintain consistent judgments. However, for estoppel to achieve its purposes, the judge must be able to tell which issues were decided. In Russell versus Place, a patent decision left the Court befuddled.

Nathan Russell received a patent for two processes of leather preparation. The first process involved using liquid fat, and the second process involved a method of treating certain lamb- and sheepskin with a compound. Russell lost the patent because the application’s description was declared defective. However, the patent was reissued after Russell amended the description. Russell sued Isaac Place and others for patent infringement in the United States Circuit Court for the Northern District of New York, alleging that Place was selling Russell’s patented invention without permission. Place argued that the reissued patent was invalid because the new description changed the invention, and the leather preparations at issue had been in use for over two years prior to Russell’s application. A jury ruled in Russell’s favor, finding that the patent was valid and infringed. However, the record didn’t indicate which of Russell’s two leather-preparation processes had been infringed. Russell then brought a second action in the circuit court against Place for infringement of the same patent, arguing that the prior judgment estopped Place from asserting that the patent was invalid. This time, the circuit court found for Place. Russell appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which granted cert.

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