ATLANTA – A U.S. District Court ruling yesterday has resolved a four-year patent dispute between Manheim and Auction Management Solutions, Inc., (AMS) vindicating Manheim’s position on the matter.

“As we have stated from the beginning, we firmly believed the original lawsuit against Manheim had no merit, and we are extremely pleased that the court has agreed with us in this case,” said Manheim president and CEO Dean Eisner.

In its ruling, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia/Atlanta Division agreed with Manheim’s two main arguments: first, that the court should invalidate AMS’ Online Ringman patent; and second, that even if the patent were valid, there is no infringement by Manheim’s Simulcast.

The court ruled in favor of Manheim on these key points in their entirety and granted Manheim’s motion to invalidate AMS’ patent, making the patent no longer valid or enforceable, and granted Manheim’s motion that Simulcast does not infringe on the AMS patent.