Pratt & Whitney v. Chromalloy lawsuit

Pratt & Whitney sued Chromalloy (largest jet engine parts remanufacturer) for patent infringement on TLP bonding among other patents. Tom located a 1956 *Welding Journal* paragraph from Rohr Corporation that anticipated the entire TLP patent disclosure, invalidating that patent. Chromalloy won the suit but spent $30 million in legal fees and got no damages.

About 10 or 15 years ago, Pratt & Whitney decided they wanted to destroy Chromalloy Corporation, which was the largest remanufacturer of jet engine parts. This was because peace had broken out — it was probably 15 years ago now — peace had broken out because of the fall of the former Soviet Union, and so they weren't selling as many engines anymore. They wanted to do something to boost their business, and there was this five- or ten-billion-dollar repair industry out there to remanufacture jet engine parts. Chromalloy was the largest remanufacturer of jet engine parts in the world, essentially remanufacturing Pratt & Whitney parts, General Electric parts, and Rolls-Royce parts.

A 1956 paragraph Tom found that anticipated the entire Pratt & Whitney TLP patent disclosure, invalidating that patent in the Chromalloy suit. Mentioned only in service of the Chromalloy case. ## Figures referenced (not cases)

I remember going down to the Pratt & Whitney plant in the mid-90s in North Haven, Connecticut, and the general manager of the plant took us to dinner the night before. He said, we've been giving away this five-billion-dollar industry to all these other people and we're not going to let that happen in the future. So they turned around and sued Chromalloy for a bunch of patents, and one of them was this paper and the patent on TLP bonding — except I found a 1956 paper in the Welding Journal, just a little paragraph, showing that Rohr Corporation had described the exact same thing. Every element of that patent disclosure was in that paragraph in the Welding Journal in 1956. So that patent got thrown out, but they still had a lawsuit about all this other stuff. In the end Chromalloy won. The judge awarded them no damages, and it cost them $30 million in legal fees. So you can say did they win or did they lose, but anyway, they're still in business.