A Federal District Court situated in Ohio (US) has set a trial date for a copyright infringement case relating to the US Playing Card Company and an inventor located in Florida named Michael Faessler. The trial date that has been set is planned for January 14th 2008. The case in hand was initiated back in 2005, and Faessler has accused the US Playing Card Company of copying the design of his ‘Military playing card line’, the case potentially holds statutory damages totalling around $1.3 million. Faessler’s allegations are that the complete set of all four card designs are being infringed by The Us Playing Card Company’s production of its own ‘Patriotic Playing Card line’.
The court case is an example of a clash between two opposites in terms of power and size, The US Playing Card Company reaps profits of around $5.6 billion a year, comparing with an individual military veteran claiming copyright infringement. This kind of behaviour is apparently not unheard from in terms of the UPCC attempting to infringe upon smaller counterparts’ ideas, according to Faessler in this statement; “This behaviour by USPC is not new. In 2004 they did basically the same thing to another small inventor, Kim Simmons (Simmons v. USPC & Wal-Mart). Ironically, this was a fact that USPC conveniently forgot to disclose in official documents to the court. I’m not sure if that played some role in USPC’s sudden decision to fire CEO Jason Lockwood, on the morning of my deposition”. Obviously this statement is subject to strong bias on Faessler’s part, but the case is that of strong controversy, and the outcome looks to be uncertain.
In an attempt to support his effort in securing compensation for the alleged copyright infringement, Michael Faessler has created his own website providing an explanation of the whole court case situation, along with representing his personal opinion on the matter. Photos of the designs of both manufacturers’ versions of the playing cards can also be seen on the website allowing the public to create their own opinion on the matter. Faessler’s website can be viewed at www.FAESSLERVUSPC.com.
Faessler has apparently filed a series of documents with the purpose of securing a victory in the court room relating to nine separate counts of copyright infringement, now the David v Goliath battle will be settled in January next year.
