SmartMetric Wins on Major Points in Its Appeal in the Federal Appeals Court on Its Patent Dispute With Visa and MasterCard

SOURCE: SmartMetric, Inc.

April 12, 2012 09:20 ET

SmartMetric Patent Law Suit Against the Major Credit Card Companies

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA--(Marketwire - Apr 12, 2012) - SmartMetric, Inc. (OTCBB: SMME) -- The President & CEO of SmartMetric, Inc., Ms. C. Hendrick, the developer of "secured by Biometric's" Credit and Identity Cards, announced today that on April 11th, a Federal Appeals Court in Washington, DC handed down a ruling in respect of the SmartMetric Patent "474" in which the Appeal Court upheld the lower District Court's ruling that the SmartMetric Patent covers by definition the use of CONTACT Data Cards as well as dismissing at the same time the lower Court's restriction of the SmartMetric "474" Patent to only private networks. The Appeals Court did dismiss SmartMetric's appeal in respect of Contact-less Cards.

The vast majority of Credit and Debit Card transactions are Contact Card transactions while Contact-less card transactions represent a small percentage of all card transactions.

This means that the parties being sued for Patent infringement, namely Visa and MasterCard, have lost in their attempt to exclude ATM and Point of Sale Credit Card Machines that use contact Data Cards from the SmartMetric, Inc. patent.

Both Visa and MasterCard have announced and have begun to issue Data Card, Credit Cards, that is Credit Cards with EMV Chip Cards. These Credit and Debit Cards are often referred to as "Chip & Pin" Cards. All such Cards are now according to the Federal Appeals Court by definition to be in violation of the meanings as defined in the SmartMetric, Inc. "474" issued Patent.

Furthermore, such EMV or "Chip & Pin" Cards are also in violation of the SmartMetric Patent if they are even used on corporate intranets, internets, public and or private networks. This means such Credit Cards that are now standard issue in most parts of the world are in violation when used in ATMs, Retail Card Reading Machines, etc.

SmartMetric, Inc. welcomes the Federal Appeals Court Ruling and declares that it will now continue with its stayed hearing lawsuit against Visa & MasterCard and will seek all legal remedies at the company's disposal including but not limited to damages for Patent Violation as well as any other legal options open to the Company. SmartMetric's law suit for Patent infringement against the largest Credit Card companies in the World will now move forward based on the Federal Appeals Court Ruling of April 11th, 2012.

The following are excerpts from the Appeals Court Ruling:

"We therefore hold that the district court's construction of "insertion of said data card into said data card reader" is correct."

"Thus, this case does not present a claim differentiation concern. Moreover, we see no reason why a data card that communicates with a card reader using an embedded antenna cannot also be inserted into a data card reader to immediately trigger an application program. We therefore hold that the district court's construction of "insertion of said data card into said data card reader" is correct."

"We therefore hold that the district court's construction erroneously limits network service providers to those providing access to general-purpose public networks."

"The district court's judgment of non-infringement was independently supported by its construction of either term.

For the reasons explained above, the district court's construction of "plurality of network service providers" was erroneous; however, its construction of "insertion of said data card into said data card reader" was correct."

About SmartMetric:

The SmartMetric, Biometric Card Computer provides powerful computing with large memory capacity in a revolutionary size that has taken more than 10 years of research and development. Using the latest in sub micro technology electronics, the company has achieved a level of miniaturization that allows it to release a solution of portable computing power that, combined with SmartMetric's biometric fingerprint in-card scanning technology, is so revolutionary it will change the way business is done and information is handled across a broad range of industries.

For further information please go to the company's website: www.smartmetric.com