Court Affirms Invalidity of Sports Trading ‘Memorabilia Card’ Patent for Obviousness

In a split decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled March 1 that a patent on attaching a piece of cloth from an athlete’s jersey onto a sports card was invalid for obviousness (Media Technologies Licensing LLC v. Upper Deck Co.).

Judge Randall R. Rader in a dissenting opinion criticized the majority for dismissing the importance of the invention. “Lurking just beneath the surface of this court’s blindness to the underlying facts supporting non-obviousness is a bias against non-technical arts,” he said.

Patent on Memorabilia Cards.

In 1994, Adrian Gluck filed an application for ...