Citation[]
Digitronics Corp. v. New York Racing Ass'n, 187 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 602 (E.D.N.Y. 1975), aff’d, 553 F.2d 740, 193 U.S.P.Q. 577 (2d Cir.) (full-text), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 860 (1977).
Trial Court Proceedings[]
A patent relating to a solid state electronic system for processing data from ticket issuing machines was held invalid for obviousness. The court reasoned that the claims did not perform functions that differed from the prior art in the totalisator business. Instead, solid state electronic means were merely applied to do the totalisator function with improved performance. The court found that this improved performance was just what could have been predicted when those means were applied to perform that function.
| “ | The scope of the prior art in this case, in which the hypothetical reasonable person must be ordinarily skilled is the data processing industry generally. | ” |