Stratosphere punished for violating Harrah’s patent

Chris Jones

Thursday, Jan. 24, 2002 | 11:16 a.m.

U.S. District Judge Lloyd George in Las Vegas on Wednesday issued an injunction that prohibits Stratosphere Corp. and other gaming operators from infringing on a marketing patent held by Harrah's Entertainment Inc., Harrah's said.

Harrah's sued Stratosphere last April, alleging that Stratosphere was operating a promotion that infringed on Harrah's patented "Bet Guarantee System."

Developed by Thomas Cook and James LoCicero and filed in 1996, the invention is a casino management system that tracks a player's wins, losses and the casino's theoretical win to produce a rating ticket that customers can redeem for cash, credit or coins.

Harrah's said the court affirmed a consent agreement between the two gaming operators in which Stratosphere acknowledged that the Harrah's patent was valid and enforceable, and that it had infringed on the patent. Stratosphere also paid monetary compensation to Harrah's for the infringement.

Harrah's spokesman Gary Thompson said the consent agreement prevented further comment on the issue. He also declined to disclose the amount of the monetary settlement between the two companies.

"There's only a very small portion of the consent agreement that has been unsealed and I don't even know myself what the monetary amount was," Thompson said. "The most important thing is (the court's decision) signals that we're very serious about protecting our intellectual assets and will continue to do so."

Stratosphere officials declined comment. The company operates the Stratosphere hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Harrah's operates a casino resort by that name on the Strip as well as the near-Strip Rio hotel-casino.

Last July Harrah's also sued Station Casinos Inc., alleging the locals' casinos giant infringed on other patents that protect Harrah's customer-loyalty program, Total Rewards. Station denied that allegation and that lawsuit is pending.