GGRAsia – Aristocrat sues alleging IP breach by L&W Dragon slot titles

Aristocrat sues alleging IP breach by L&W Dragon slot titles

Mar 13, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World

Slot machine maker and digital content provider Aristocrat Technologies Inc has filed a lawsuit in the United States against gaming equipment supplier Light & Wonder Inc, alleging the latter violated its intellectual property (IP). The matter involves Dragon-themed titles offered by the two companies.

The lawsuit was filed on February 26 at the U.S. District Court of Nevada, and also includes Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd as a plaintiff, according to a court docket reviewed by GGRAsia.

Aside from Light & Wonder, two other units of that group are named as defendants: LNW Gaming Inc, and SciPlay Corp, show the court papers.

Australian media reports said Aristocrat has accused its competitor of allegedly breaching its intellectual property following Light & Wonder’s release of the new “Dragon Train” family of games. The new title was first released in Australia last year, and was launched in the U.S. market last week.

Aristocrat stated its market rival used confidential trade secrets from one of its most popular games, “Dragon Link”. It also alleges that former Aristocrat employees who now work for Light & Wonder misappropriated trade secrets that violated laws in the U.S. state of Nevada, reported the Australian Financial Review.

According to the media outlet, Aristocrat alleges in the lawsuit that Light & Wonder obtained confidential information about the maths and functionality of its Dragon Link game, which it said has similar game rules, symbols, pay tables and bonus features.

The court documents also allege Light & Wonder’s game was developed and designed by former Aristocrat employees, who provided Aristocrat’s proprietary information to Light & Wonder to create its new title.

According to media reports, Aristocrat is seeking expedited discovery of Light & Wonder’s internal documents in order to discover if and to what extent its intellectual property has been misappropriated, namely regarding the origin, software and functionality for the Dragon Train game.

A spokesperson for Light & Wonder, which is run by former Aristocrat executives, told the Australian Financial Review that Aristocrat’s actions were “entirely without merit”.

“We will be vigorously defending against them, including seeking the dismissal of this baseless lawsuit,” the person reportedly said, adding that a defence is expected to be filed before the end of the week.