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The gaming industry is in an uproar over the slot
machine litigation running rampant in past two years. The two main
contenders in the slot machine litigation are the two largest slot machine
manufacturers in the world. Bally Technologies, Inc. is the second largest
slot machine manufacturer in the world, surpassed only by International Game
Technology. Initially, Bally Technologies was the brunt of most of IGT’s
slot machine litigation. Now however, Bally has turned the tables on IGT.
Competition in the slot machine industry is fierce, and as a result the slot
machine manufacturers monitor the market to ensure that other slot machine
manufacturers do not infringe on their patent. With this type of watchdog
atmosphere in the slot machine industry, it is no wonder that everyone is
becoming sue-happy. No one knows more about the slot machine litigation than
Charles Verhoeven—Verhoeven represents Bally Technologies and is responsible
for handling all of the litigation against, or by, Bally.
Though Bally started out on the offensive with four lawsuits since 2004
issued by IGT, Bally recently issued their own litigation against IGT. In
September, Bally sued IGT for patent infringement dealing with their
spinning wheel indicators. And that is just the beginning of Bally’s slot
machine litigation—Verhoeven commented that he has four patent cases in the
works for Bally.
Verhoeven had an interesting viewpoint on why the slot machine industry is
so sue-happy recently. “There is an increasing amount of litigation in the
gaming industry because the slot machines are becoming more sophisticated
and technology is playing a larger role in many of the systems casinos use.”
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