IGT reaches agreement with Aristocrat

"IGT is pleased that we were able to reach an agreement with Aristocrat and put these disputes behind us," said Robert G. Melendres, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at IGT. "This settlement confirms and reinforces the importance of intellectual property to IGT and this industry."

Aristocrat Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Odell said Aristocrat was pleased to have reached agreement with IGT. “Resolution of these intellectual property disputes acknowledges the strength of each company’s intellectual property,” Odell said.

“Aristocrat’s IP is a crucial company asset and the company has taken a proactive approach to aggressively protect and defend IP as a core part of our business strategy. This settlement with IGT will now allow us to focus on our intellectual property efforts against other parties.”

Two of the settled lawsuits were pending in the United States. In 2006, Aristocrat sued IGT in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on patents related to multi-level progressives such as Aristocrat's HYPERLINK and IGT's FORT KNOX products. In 2010, IGT sued Aristocrat in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on patents related to the authentication of software in slot machines. The other lawsuit was pending in Australia.

In 2010, Aristocrat sued IGT AU in the Federal Court of Australia, New South Wales District Registry, on an Australian patent related to a side bet feature on slot machines.