Shuffle Master competitor disputes patent claims

Tuesday, April 30, 2002 | 10:59 a.m.

Las Vegas gaming supplier VendingData Corp. and two subsidiaries are fighting rival casino supplier Shuffle Master Inc. of Las Vegas over ownership rights to a gaming patent for card shufflers.

Shuffle Master, which said it owns a patent for a machine that shuffles multiple decks of playing cards, sued to stop VendingData and its subsidiaries Casinovations Inc. and Casinovations Sales Inc. in U.S. District Court in March from selling the shufflers.

But VendingData, in court papers filed Friday, disputed Shuffle Master's claims, saying it owned and developed in 1992 the Random Ejection Shuffler (RES)-- an automated gaming system that randomly ejects playing cards from a group of vertically stacked unshuffled cards.

VendingData said Shuffle Master "initiated a calculated campaign ... intended to impede (its) business operations and introduction of RES technology into the marketplace" after it failed five times to acquire VendingData's RES technology.

Shuffle Master, which allegedly signed a confidentiality agreement in May 1994 with VendingData that allows Shuffle Master engineers to review its trade secrets on RES technology, was accused of misappropriating the information and filing a gaming patent that incorporated RES technology in August 1994.

Mark Yoseloff, Shuffle Master's chairman and chief executive, said there are a number of "misstatements" by VendingData.

"Shuffle Master spent a lot of money to protect its patents and intellectual property. VendingData has clearly infringed that intellectual property and we will continue to pursue all of our rights through the court."