It follows the successful grant of equivalent patents in Europe (September 2007) and India (February 2009).

The patents all center on the core Serverside technology that enables a cardholder to design a financial payment card using a personal photo via an online manipulation tool - see image, attached.

The latest grant is further evidence of a global trend and not only enhances Serverside Group's competitive position in New Zealand but indicates the likely outcome in other territories yet to come to grant.

The New Zealand patent grant was officially published on 31 July 2009 under New Zealand Patent No. 543516. The application leading to this patent defined the first of three inventions derived from the original worldwide patent family, which itself is one of a number of worldwide patent families applied for in recent years to cover the design, marketing and production of customized financial transaction cards.

The patent grant comes at a time when issuers globally are experiencing strong ROI on the back of card customization programs, which blend seamlessly with the rapidly evolving online and mobile environments. A video case study of an issuer that generated an additional US$45 per card per year through increased transactions resulting from a card customization program can be found at serversidegroup.com.

Adam Elgar, President, Serverside Group, commented: "This latest patent not only protects our position in New Zealand, where we work with a number of significant issuers, but is yet more proof of a growing global trend. We are now very confident that we will achieve favorable outcomes in other major jurisdictions and are focusing our attention on the remainder of our patent applications. We have always placed a massive emphasis on innovating, on creating cutting-edge tools and technology for card issuers, so investing in our IP was always a priority. This latest decision by the New Zealand Patent Office once again justifies our strategy."