You can't trademark a range of numbers. That's the decision that U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery upheld this week, denying Fair Isaac Corp., also known as FICO, a new trial in a case it lost in November.

She also ordered the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel FICO's trademark on its 300-to-850 score range once FICO completes its appeal.

The suit, originally filed by FICO in 2006 against credit bureaus Experian, Equifax and TransUnion -- in addition to VantageScore Solutions, the three bureaus' credit scoring joint venture -- accused the defendants of several claims, including false advertising, violating antitrust laws and trademark infringement. (Equifax was dismissed from the case in 2008.) Many of the claims were thrown out by the judge in July. The trial ended in November, with a Minneapolis jury ruling that FICO's competitors may continue to use their own numerical score ranges for their credit scoring products.

VantageScore CEO Barrett Burns said the decision would help quell the fears of some bankers who didn't want to do business with VantageScore until they knew whether the company was going to have to change its 501 to 990 score range. "It signals to the marketplace that we're alive and well and doing business and moving forward and that if a lender had a hesitation about us, they don't need to hesitate," Burns said.

In a statement, FICO spokesman Stephen Astle confirms the company's plan to appeal. "The defendants have not been held accountable for copying what it took FICO 20 years to build, and consumers will continue to be victims of big budget ad campaigns that trick them into buying knock-off scores." Fair Isaac has argued that having multiple credit scores using three-digit ranges is confusing to consumers. The majority of consumer lending decisions continue to involve the FICO score.

It's hard to know whether VantageScore has been successful in its quest to take market share from FICO. The venture says it doesn't track sales figures and claims its VantageScore is used by eight of the top 25 financial institutions as well as eight of the top 10 credit card issuers. FICO claims its clients include two-thirds of the top 100 world banks, 90 of the 100 largest U.S. financial institutions and all 100 of the largest U.S. credit card issuers. The same financial institutions may purchase both credit scores.

FICO recently reported that net income for its fiscal second quarter was $13 million, or 28 cents per share -- a nearly 27 percent drop from the second quarter 2009 net income of $17.7 million.

The company's revenue over the same period declined nearly 10 percent to $143.7 million. Revenue in the scoring segment was down 5 percent -- to $42.5 million. In a press release on earnings day, CEO Mark Greene blamed "poor sales execution" for the tough quarter.

FICO shares closed Wednesday at $22.58 -- up 1.8 percent.

Kara McGuire • 612-673-7293