Bally Technologies has announced that the US District Court for the District of Nevada has deemed Bally's wheel indicator patent invalid based on obviousness and prior art.
The decision was granted under a motion by IGT for summary judgment. The Bally patent has a priority date before that of the patents that IGT is asserting against Bally in a separate suit, yet the court still determined it obvious.
In issuing its order, the court cited the recent Supreme Court decision of KSR International Co v Teleflex Inc and determined that the combination of prior art, coupled with the well-known use of a wheel in gaming, rendered the claims obvious. The court\‘s order does not negatively impact any Bally products in the field.
Richard Haddrill, chief executive officer of Bally Technologies, said: “This underscores the difficulty in bringing suit on patents in our industry post KSR and we feel this decision strengthens our position in the other litigation brought by IGT also in the US District Court for the District of Nevada.”
