Patent Law

The following is excerpted from a March 4, 2010 Harness Dickey news item regarding Media Technologies Licensing, LLC. v. Upper Deck Co., 2009-1022(Fed. Cir. Mar. 1, 2010):

A divided Federal Circuit panel affirmed summary judgment that claims in Media Tech?s two patents to trading cards with attached items or fragments of memorabilia were obvious over prior art that had been considered in reexamination proceedings: a Marilyn Monroe trading card with diamond, hotel stationary with piece of sheet one of the Beatles slept on, a holy card of a Capuchin friar with attached piece of his clothing, and a James Dean greeting card with jeans material.  (In an interesting decision on petition to dismiss the reexamination because the unique cards with attached objects were not ?printed publications,? the PTO held there was a ?colorable argument? that they were so that the reexamination could proceed; the patent owner would be able to raise the issue again on appeal. The decision noted evidence showed public availability and accessibility.  Reexamination certificates were issued without an appeal being taken.)  The panel found the claims obvious as an expert opinion showed sports card designers adopted ideas from other card genres, with no mention of the PTO?s decision to issue reexamination certificates after considering the same prior art. 

Access the full news item and a link to the Federal Circuit's opinion here.  A 90-minute Strafford CLE webinar/teleconference titled, "Obviousness Standard for Patents Post-KSR" will take place on April 14, 2010.