Posts Tagged: "Visa"

Federal Circuit Affirms 101 Invalidation of Secure Transaction System Patents in Victory for Apple and Visa

On Thursday, August 26, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision in Universal Secure Registry LLC v. Apple Inc. in which the appellate court affirmed the District of Delaware’s grant of a motion to dismiss Universal Secure Registry’s (USR) patent infringement allegations. In a decision that will be discouraging to some, though unsurprising, the Federal Circuit okayed the district court’s invalidation of all asserted claims from USR’s four patents-in-suit, finding that each patent was properly gunned down after being placed on the firing line of Section 101 subject matter ineligibility. The opinion was authored by Judge Stoll.

McDonald’s Payment Devices Do Not Infringe Digital Rights Management Patents

The Federal Circuit panel of Circuit Judges Timothy Dyk, Jimmie Reyna and Richard Taranto noted that “the matter at hand reveals a gap in our jurisprudence on what constitutes ‘use’ under § 271(a).” The Federal Circuit found no controlling precedent on the definition of “use” of a claimed system when the accused infringer must act to put the claimed system into service but does not appear to possess any element of the claimed system. Further, the panel felt that McDonald’s had overstated the Federal Circuit’s holding in Uniloc as the appellate court concluded that a single party can still use a system and directly infringe a patent even when that system requires multiple parties to function. “Therefore, Uniloc only broadened the scope of potential direct infringers under § 271(a),” the Federal Circuit found.

Esports Sponsorship Agreements: What to Look Out For

Esports is a truly global phenomenon, with some analysts estimating worldwide viewership at approximately 300 million, potentially rising to 500 million by 2020. With so many eyeballs on esports – and with so many of those eyeballs being in a millennial category that is young, affluent, globalized, and technologically-driven, but increasingly challenging for brands to engage with – esports presents an exciting opportunity for sponsors. And, as with any other sport, sponsorship can be a significant revenue generator for rights holders. But, intellectual property rights are complex in esports. When entering into an esports sponsorship arrangement, both rights holders (whether they be players, teams, tournament organizers or games publishers) and sponsors face many of the same issues that the parties to a deal in traditional sports do.

Mobile Payments: FinTech vs. Non-FinTech Patent Landscape

In November 2016, European Payments Council (EPC) launched the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme. With this move, the payment coordination body of the European banking industry has placed over 34 European countries at the center-stage of mobile payments. This scheme will not only spearhead adoption of instant mobile payments and transactions worldwide, but also push the major economies of the World to start regulating the unstructured and incomplete mobile payments legal framework. Growing adoption of mobile payments and steps taken by other regulatory bodies of the world like EPC will certainly push USA to update its own regulatory and legal framework.