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September 21, 2006

The lawsuit alleges that various IGT slot machine products, including the popular Wheel of Fortune gaming machines, infringe on a U.S. patent issued Sept. 5 to Bally by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Other IGT games Bally alleges infringe the patent include “Wheel of Gold,” “The Addams Family,” “American Bandstand,” “The Apprentice,” “Dilbert Wheelbert,” “Drew Carey Great Balls of Cash,” “Elvira,” “I Dream of Jeannie,” “I Love Lucy,” “Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “M*A*S*H,” “Megabucks with Morgan Fairchild,” “Regis On the Town,” “Sinatra,” and “Twilight Zone.”

Bally's lawsuit requests preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, a court declaration of infringement and monetary damages.

The newly issued patent, titled “Indicator Wheel System” (U.S. Patent No. 7,100,916) benefits from an original Oct. 2, 1992, filing date and relates to the use of spinning wheel indicators on a game, Bally said in a news release

“Bally has a 75-year history of developing outstanding gaming products and has also acquired a number of innovative companies and technologies,” said Richard Haddrill, chief executive officer of Bally Technologies. “The newly issued patent was developed by Arcade Planet, a gaming company that Bally acquired more than two years ago. Bally intends to aggressively prosecute any infringement of this patent.”

Mark Lipparelli, Bally executive vice president of operations, said Bally Technologies is confident in the patent’s merits.

“The claim language that’s used is attractive as it relates to games with these kinds of bonus mechanisms,” Lipparelli said. “We were very happy to have the set of claims issued.”

Lipparelli noted that Bally Technologies has placed increased focus on intellectual property matters. “Bally and IGT have been innovators in the marketplace, and it is has not been uncommon for us to have patent litigation,” he said.

IGT spokesman Ed Rogich said the company is not worried. “We feel confident in our position,” said Rogich, vice president of marketing for IGT. “We’ve reviewed this and we look forward to responding in court.”

In the meantime, he said, the company will continue to pursue its own patent litigation against Bally Technologies.

IGT and Bally have sparred several times since 2004 over intellectual property pertaining to gaming machines or game play.

The most recent challenge from IGT came in May, when the company filed suit over Bally’s “Bally Power Bonusing,” a systems product IGT alleges infringes on nine of its U.S. patents.

“Although IGT respects and supports true innovation in the gaming technology field, it cannot condone willful infringement by others of IGT's valuable intellectual property. The patents at issue in this lawsuit cover innovations Bally has chosen to exploit for its own benefit without seeking a license or any other authorization from IGT,” TJ Matthews, IGT chairman and chief executive officer, said in a news release outlining the lawsuit’s allegations.

In December 2004, IGT also sued Bally for infringing six patents including patents relating to IGT's bonus wheel gaming machines. In a news release at the time, Bally denied any wrongdoing, and specifically asserted “there is no merit” to IGT’s claim that Bally’s Monte Carlo slot machine game infringes on a recently issued IGT patent. Bally noted the Monte Carlo game was originally introduced in the 1970s and was updated and re-introduced in 2002.

IGT also is party to another pending lawsuit in which Bally is accused of infringing patents relating to optical systems for monitoring table games.

—By Marian Green