Patent settlement with Acres Gaming detailed

Wednesday, April 18, 2001 | 11:11 a.m.

Casino Data Systems on Tuesday announced details of the settlement, which stems from U.S. District Court suits filed by Acres against CDS, Mikohn Gaming Corp., New York-New York hotel-casino and Sunset Station hotel-casino. Those suits were consolidated into one court case, which ended after an eight-day trial last month.

Acres won $1.5 million in damages in a patent dispute with Mikohn, but said it settled prior to the trial with CDS and Sunset Station. CDS' Tuesday announcement disclosed details of the settlement for the first time.

Under the settlement, Acres agreed to pay CDS an undisclosed amount in addition to promising not to sue CDS over its OASIS/ProTurbo progressive product, which was the subject of the litigation, and various other CDS products.

Acres and CDS also dismissed all claims against each other and agreed to non-binding mediation of any future patent disputes between them.

The original Acres suit involved the methods computer systems use to award bonuses to slot players and communicate with slot machines connected to a casino network.