US Playing Card Company is Taken to Court

US Playing Card Company is Taken to Court

Friday, 23 November 2007

A trial date has been set for the copyright infringement case between Florida inventor Michael Faessler and the US Playing Card Company, one of the largest makers of playing cards.

A trial date has been set for the copyright infringement case between Florida inventor Michael Faessler and the US Playing Card Company, one of the largest makers of playing cards. The two parties will go to the courts on January 14th 2008.
Faessler’s case against the USPC was filed back in September 2005, and accuses the USPC of nine counts of infringements for possible statutory damages of up to $1.35m. The Florida inventor claims that four registered copyrights, one for each set of designs he created, are being violated.
Faessler had previously sold his line of Military Playing Cards to military PXs between 1995 and 2001 and then saw that business superseded when the USPC launched its Patriotic Playing Cards line. Faessler claims that the USPC became aware of his role with PX in 1998 and began to target his lines. Faessler returned to his duties in 2001 to then see the USPC successfully enter the PX market with the Patriotic Playing Cards line. The USPC’s design bears some similarities to Faesslers’ which are predominantly themed decks using military insignias in place of suit ‘pips’.
The US Playing Card company had filed a pre-trial motion to dismiss, which was successfully repelled by Faessler. He now seeks compensation in the planned jury trial, and will also look to target the military PXs in another action in the future.



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