For Immediate Release
LITTLETON, CO – March 2, 2016- PassTime, a leading provider of GPS and Payment Assurance
Technology solutions, is pleased to announce that the United States Patent and
Trademark Office invalidated the entirety of a patent owned by LunarEye and
which was the subject of a patent lawsuit claiming infringement by certain
PassTime products.
The patent, 6,484,035, had claimed
an apparatus and method for triggerable location reporting and listed Alvin C.
Allen, Jr. (a.k.a. Chuck Allen) as the alleged inventor.
In its opinion of February
2, 2016, a panel of three judges of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board for the
United States Patent and Trademark Office ruled that PassTime “has shown by a
preponderance of the evidence that claims 1–24 of the ’035 patent are
unpatentable” and entered an order that “claims 1–24 of U.S. Patent No.
6,484,035 B2 are held unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 103.” On September
28, 2015, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board had previously found that claim 3
of the patent was invalid, which had been the sole subject of a prior validity
challenge by PassTime.
Stan Schwarz, CEO and Founder of
PassTime, stated that “We are pleased to have prevailed both times we have
sought relief from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on this invalid patent,
which we had considered to have been used for filing a frivolous suit. We
plan in the future to contemplate our options regarding the actions taken so
far by Chuck Allen, LunarEye, and its counsel.”
In public filings, LunarEye stated
that it intends to appeal the decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Stewart Mesher of Conley Rose
P.C., legal counsel in the patent lawsuit stated that “we understand that our
client is pleased with the result, and we look forward to it being affirmed
should LunarEye appeal it.”
The patent lawsuit, Case
9:13-cv-00091 pending in the Eastern District of Texas, is on hold pending the
outcome of any appeals that LunarEye continues to pursue.
About PassTime
PassTime GPS has been in business for more than 25 years in the global
transportation industry. Its wireless GPS telematics products are available for
multiple sectors of the automotive industry including auto dealers, auto
finance companies, auto leasing companies, insurance companies and fleet
transportation providers. Its products are available in the USA, Canada,
Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. The company designs,
engineers, manufactures and distributes its own products and has more than 50
patents protecting its technology.
For more information about PassTime, visit www.passtimegps.com or email info@passtimegps.com