Net MoneyIN, Inc. v. Verisign, Inc.

Net MoneyIN, Inc. (NMI) (plaintiff) owned a US patent directed to an internet-based system for processing credit-card transactions. The claimed invention maintained security of transmitted information and, according to the inventor, provided additional advantages of not requiring (1) a customer to transmit confidential information directly to an unknown merchant, and (2) the degree of financial requirements previously imposed on merchants by credit-card issuers. Claim 23 of NMI’s patent specified five system links: two links between a customer computer and a payment-processing computer; a link between the customer computer and a vending computer; a link between the payment-processing computer and a credit-card-server computer; and a link between the payment-processing computer and the vending computer. NMI sued VeriSign, Inc. (defendant) for patent infringement. VeriSign moved for summary judgment of invalidity, contending that claim 23 of NMI’s patent was invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a) because that claim was anticipated by a prior printed publication—namely, a 1995 document titled “Internet Keyed Payments Protocol” (the iKP reference ). The iKP reference disclosed an internet-based system for processing credit-card transactions, but the cited disclosures in that reference took the form of two separate examples, neither of which on its own taught all five of the links recited in claim 23. Nevertheless, the district court granted VeriSign’s motion, reasoning that because the two cited examples, in the aggregate, taught all five of the claimed links, the iKP reference anticipated claim 23 under § 102(a). NMI appealed.