Cardinal Chemical Company, Etc., et al. v. Morton International, Inc.

Decided May 17, 1993. John Paul Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 92-114 · 508 U.S. 83 (1993) · Cited 519 times

Holding

The Federal Circuit’s affirmance of a finding that a patent has not been infringed is not per se a sufficient reason for vacating a declaratory judgment holding the patent invalid.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 9–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Altvater v. Freeman · 319 U.S. 359 (1943)
• Blonder-Tongue Laboratories, Inc. v. University of Illinois Foundation · 402 U.S. 313 (1971)
• Electrical Fittings Corp. v. Thomas · 307 U.S. 241 (1939)
• Cheng Fan Kwok v. Immigration & Naturalization Service · 392 U.S. 206 (1968)
• Triplett v. Lowell · 297 U.S. 638 (1936)
• Thomas v. Arn · 474 U.S. 140 (1985)
• Aetna Life Insurance v. Haworth · 300 U.S. 227 (1937)
• United States v. W. T. Grant Co. · 345 U.S. 629 (1953)
• United States v. Munsingwear, Inc. · 340 U.S. 36 (1950)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Chadha · 462 U.S. 919 (1983)
• Brillhart v. Excess Insurance Co. of America · 316 U.S. 491 (1942)
• Deposit Guaranty National Bank v. Roper · 445 U.S. 326 (1980)
• Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. v. Florida Gulf Coast Building & Construction Trades Council · 485 U.S. 568 (1988)
• Kerotest Manufacturing Co. v. C-O-Two Fire Equipment Co. · 342 U.S. 180 (1952)
• Bob Jones University v. United States · 461 U.S. 574 (1983)
• Toibb v. Radloff · 501 U.S. 157 (1991)
• Ortega-Rodriguez v. United States · 507 U.S. 234 (1993)
• Sinclair & Carroll Co. v. Interchemical Corp. · 325 U.S. 327 (1945)
• Pickett v. Brown · 462 U.S. 1 (1983)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc. · 549 U.S. 118 (2007)
• Commil United States, LLC v. Cisco Sys., Inc. · 575 U.S. 632 (2015)
• Wilton v. Seven Falls Co. · 515 U.S. 277 (1995)
• Already, LLC v. Nike, Inc. · 568 U.S. 85 (2013)
• Izumi Seimitsu Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha v. U. S. Philips Corp. · 510 U.S. 27 (1993)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

Explore from here

John Paul Stevens’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1993). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).