IGT and Novomatic in Patent Licensing Deal

Land and online betting groups IGT and Novomatic announced this week that they have signed a patent cross-licensing deal, which will allow Novomatic the opportunity to offer game features from IGT.

The agreement will see Novomatic getting the rights to offer the features in their games, with them paying IGT a licensing fee for those products. Even though IGT is a publicly traded company, there were no details on fees paid or the length of the agreement available as of press time.

Speaking about the deal IGT's Michael Prescott said, "We welcome Novomatic to a comprehensive group of gaming industry leaders who have created a vast resource of game features patents. IGT's collaborative effort to build upon North America's largest slot game feature patent portfolio now encompasses a global patent pool that we believe can foster continued industry-wide innovation."

Novomatic CTO Thomas Graf also commented, noting: "Reaching this cross-licensing agreement with IGT enhances our global expansion strategy with access to compelling product features that have proven to be successful in North America and international markets."