Judge Stays Antitrust Trial
October 29, 2008
A federal judge has vacated the scheduled start of a patent
infringement trial next week to allow slot maker International Game Technology
to appeal his summary judgment ruling in favor of claims by rival manufacturer Bally
Technologies.
The trial between IGT and Bally over
Bally’s antitrust counterclaims against IGT had been set to begin Tuesday. A
new start date was not announced.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Robert C. Jones ruled that several IGT patents covering bonus wheel slot
machines were invalid and not infringed upon by Bally.
But in a pretrial conference on Oct. 22,
Jones indicated he would stay the proceedings and certify his summary judgment
rulings for immediate appeal in the pending patent infringement case between IGT
and Bally.
"The Court recognized it would be
fundamentally unfair to make IGT defend the antitrust counterclaims following
the Court's issuance of what it called 'just a tentative ruling... tentative
because it's from me and not from the appellate court.' Therefore, the Court
decided to stay the proceedings and vacate the trial date," Dave Johnson,
IGT's executive vice president and general counsel, said in a news release
issued Tuesday.
The IGT Wheel/Bally iView case involves
patents covering bonus wheel gaming machines and certain features of player
tracking systems. In the summary judgment rulings on Oct.16, certain of IGT's
patents had been found invalid and/or not infringed. These rulings and an
earlier order relating to interpretation of terms and phrases defining the
inventions are the matters being certified for an immediate appeal by IGT.
"Judge Jones indicated that a
review of his decisions by a specialized patent court in Washington, D.C., the
Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, 'will help resolve the dispute,' and that the
parties 'need a final ruling so that [they] can conclude the trial and
litigation.' The Federal Circuit will review these recent decisions and the
earlier Markman ruling de novo or as if they were being presented for the first
time," Johnson said. "IGT looks forward to this appeal and remains
very confident in its case."
Did you enjoy this article? Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
