American betting group Scientific Games has announced that they've reached a settlement with Shuffle Tech, Aces Up Gaming, and Poydras-Talrick over frivolous patent lawsuits to the tune of $151.5 million.
The agreement comes after SG was ordered by a jury to pay $335 million earlier this year, but will save the latter groups from having to fight the case in court on appeal. In 2012 SG sued the three companies, stating that they believed that they had infringed on patents that Scientific had on automatic card shufflers. That lawsuit led to the three filing an antitrust suit against Scientific Games, where they claimed the firm misled the patents and trademark office by filing broad trademarks that would let them control the market.
Speaking about the settlement Scientific Games Chief Legal Officer James Sottile said, "While we firmly believe that the jury decision was wrong, we are pleased with the outcome of the settlement and that this matter will be resolved for good."
Comments
A quite costly mistake from SG that one...obviously they won't pay the initial sum that was ordered by the jury which was the astonishing $335mill but nevertheless a quite significant fine for them.