Focus SHFL ENTERTAINMENT
GAMBLING IN MACAU
G2E Asia 2012 saw a very public legal dispute between SHFL entertainment and China’s LT Game. Will next month see round two?
SHFL entertainment has confirmed that despite losing one recent court case in Macau and regardless of on-going legal disputes with LT Game in the Macau market, it will exhibit at G2E Asia in Macau next month.
The Las Vegas-based manufacturer said that this month’s Court of Second Instance’s ruling on a progressive baccarat game patent claimed by Jay Chun, owner of Macau-based manufacturer LT Game, would not prevent it from showing products.
A spokesperson said: “This is a standalone issue regarding the validity of a proprietary table games related patent’ we are opposing, not to be confused with our separate e-Table issue. This patent has nothing to do with anything we are currently selling in Macau.”
SHFL confirmed it had challenged the validity of the progressive baccarat patent in Court and was unsuccessful. The Court of Second Instance rejected its appeal, ruling that as SHFL is only registered in Macau as a ‘retailer and distributor and not as a manufacturer’ it had no legitimacy to appeal. The Court ruled that SHFL was unable to prove that it was ‘directly and effectively harmed’ by the government’s decision to approve Mr. Chun’s patent.
The ruling shouldn’t be confused with the on-going legal issues that SHFL and LT Game remain entangled in. LT claims it holds a monopoly over e-Table patents to sell multi-player terminals in Macau, which has seen several companies unable to display such product at G2E Asia despite the event covering Asian gaming and not just the Macau casino sector.
The wider fall out between the two companies began in 2009 but came to a head at G2E Asia last May when SHFL voluntarily covered some of its products following visits by Macau customs officials to the company’s exhibition stand. That dispute focused on SHFL’s Rapid Baccarat System, which LT claim infringes on patents it holds for multi- player hybrid games.
April 2013 PAGE 30 The litigation
regarding the Macau Rapid Baccarat Patent Issue is long and
convoluted but has led to the
scheduling of a trial hearing. SHFL’s
spokesperson said: “SHFL Asia will have the opportunity to present the legal and factual
arguments as to
why any accusation of patent
infringement should be found
totally without merit. We believe that we have meritorious
defences and are vigorously
defending this matter.”
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