Summary Judgment Improper Where Date of Prior Art Publication Is Disputed Issue of Fact

Reversing a summary judgment of invalidity on the grounds of obviousness, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that a genuine factual dispute existed where specific facts were presented that raised issues of credibility of the declarants relied on to establish the date of a prior art publication. Typeright Keyboard Corp. v. Microsoft Corp. Case No. 03-1197,1255 (Fed. Cir. July 6, 2004) (Dyk, J.).

Typeright sued Microsoft for infringing U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,372,411 (the `411 patent) and 5,503,484 (the `484 patent), which claim an ergonomic keyboard featuring a v-shaped design with separate right and left hand key clusters. Microsoft responded that all of the asserted claims were obvious, based on a one page undated document created by a German company, Marquardt. The district court granted summary judgment, holding the claims to be invalid for obviousness, relying on the testimony of two fact witnesses (both paid by Microsoft for their time testifying) who expressed