Christmas Won’t Be Christmas Without Any Presents

Posted on | December 24, 2008 | No Comments

2009-1027 Kara Technology v. Stamps.com
CD/CA 05-cv-1890
Judge Consuelo Marshall

Plaintiff Kara appeals from the orders of Judge Consuelo Marshall denying its post-trial motions and from the jury verdict of non-infringement in favor of Stamps.com.  The asserted patents were 6,505,179 and 6,735,575.

Stamps.com is an online postage stamp business, essentially an alternative to a stamp metering machine.  The accused product is Netstamps pre version 5.

Opening line from Little Women, Louisa May Alcott.  Nothing to do with the case, but I am writing this on Christmas Eve . . . . and I still have some shopping to do.

The JMOL boiled down to whether there was sufficient evidence that Netstamps did not have a "security indicia" with the "preestablished data."  Claim 1 of the '575 provides:

1. A method for establishing the validity of a display created by a
general purpose creation device, said method comprising the steps of:

placing
in said device media upon which information may be created, said media
having preestablished thereon data which is unique to said media; and

communicating
at least a portion of said preestablished data to a location
independent from said device, said independent location operable to
create on said media a security indicia, said security indicia created
in part by information contained in said preestablished media data and
whereby said security indicia is validatable at a subsequent time
partially under control of data contained in said preestablished media
data;

wherein said media is paper, and wherein said device is a general purpose printer;

wherein
said paper is divided into sections, each section adapted for printing
thereon information pertaining to a different function, each such
function having associated therewith a security indicia.

The court, without much explanation, found that the case could reasonably have gone either way—and thus the jury's verdict of non-infringement was supported by the evidence.

The court did rule in Kara's favor on Stamps.com's counterclaim of unenforceability due to inequitable conduct.  Because of the split ruling, the court also found that neither side was the "prevailing party."

More reading:

JMOL Order Inequitable Conduct

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