A federal court judge ruled that a patent infringement lawsuit filed by PaperPro stapler maker Accentra against Staples Inc can go to trial, PaperPro said on Thursday.

PaperPro, which is owned by Accentra Inc, filed a lawsuit in 2007 against Staples' One Touch staplers, saying the Staples products violated three of PaperPro's patents. Staples in turn filed a motion for summary judgment, in an attempt to have a judge decide the case without going to trial.

PaperPro said on Thursday that Staples' motion was denied, and that Staples had failed to convince the court that PaperPro's charges were unfounded, and thus unworthy of a jury trial.

A reasonable jury could conclude that Staples' accused staplers infringe the '709, '768, and '692 patents, and myriad factual disputes preclude granting summary judgment of non-infringement to Staples, Federal District Judge Audrey Collins said in a ruling.

A jury trial is now tentatively scheduled for November in US District Court for the central district of California, PaperPro said.

Staples shares were down 2.4 percent at $21.96 on Nasdaq.

The case is Accentra Inc et al v Staples Inc 07-05862 in District Court, central district of California.

(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee, editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Dave Zimmerman)

California Intellectual property law Patent