In Deepsouth Packing Co., Inc. v. Laitram Corp., 406 U.S. 518 (1972), the Supreme Court considered whether 35 U.S.C. section 271(a) prevented, as direct infringement, the domestic production of all component parts of a patented combination for export, assembly, and use abroad. 406 U.S. at 527, 92 S.Ct. 1700. The Court held that the export of unassembled components of an invention could not infringe the patent. Id. at 529, 92 S.Ct. 1700. The Court said that it could not "endorse the view that the `substantial manufacture of the constituent parts of a machine' constitutes direct infringement when we have so often held that a combination patent protects only against the operable assembly of the whole and not the manufacture of its parts." Id. at 528, 92 S.Ct. 1700. Thus, the Court concluded that the complete manufacture of the operable assembly of the whole within the United States was required for infringement by making under section 271(a).