International Game Technology has announced that it has settled its patent litigation with Aristocrat Leisure Limited. IGT and Aristocrat have cross-licensed each other to their patents and they will have the right to offer all the products which were the subject matter of the litigations subject to certain royalty obligations. This settlement ends all present patent litigation between IGT and Aristocrat and their subsidiaries.
"IGT is pleased that we were able to reach an agreement with Aristocrat and put these disputes behind us," said Robert G. Melendres, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at IGT. "This settlement confirms and reinforces the importance of intellectual property to IGT and this industry."
Two of the settled lawsuits were pending in the United States. In 2006, Aristocrat sued IGT in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on patents related to multi-level progressives such as Aristocrat's HYPERLINK and IGT's FORT KNOX products. In 2010, IGT sued Aristocrat in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on patents related to the authentication of software in slot machines.
The other lawsuit was pending in Australia. In 2010, Aristocrat sued IGT AU in the Federal Court of Australia,
|
|
|
|
|
|
New South Wales District Registry, on an Australian patent related to a side bet feature on slot machines.
Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd. confirmed the agreement with International Game Technology, Inc. to settle several intellectual property disputes and under the agreement Aristocrat and IGT will enter in to a cross-licensing arrangement involving Aristocrat’s Hyperlink and Ante-Bet patents and IGT’s Alcorn patents.
Aristocrat Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Odell said Aristocrat was pleased to have reached agreement with IGT. “Resolution of these intellectual property disputes acknowledges the strength of each company’s intellectual property. Aristocrat’s IP is a crucial company asset and the company has taken a proactive approach to aggressively protect and defend IP as a core part of our business strategy. This settlement with IGT will now allow us to focus on our intellectual property efforts against other parties.” (E-10.05.11)
|
|
