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Supplier sues over patent

Friday, March 29, 2002 | 11:57 a.m.

Las Vegas gaming supplier Shuffle Master Inc. sued rival casino supplier VendingData Corp. and two subsidiaries in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, alleging they made and sold card shufflers using its gaming patent.

Shuffle Master, which said it owns a patent for a machine that shuffles multiple decks of playing cards, wants a court order to stop the defendants from continuing to sell the shufflers. The VendingData subsidiaries sued were Casinovations Inc. and Casinovations Sales Inc.

But Steven Blad, VendingData's chief executive, disputed the allegations.

"Casinovations has been using four patents it has in place for card shufflers since 1996. This lawsuit is just business posturing by Shuffle Master," he said.

"We have a new shuffler for specialty games like Carribean Stud that's coming out in the next few months and Shuffle Master told us they won't file an injunction against us if we showed it to them and gave them a chance to buy it. This new shuffler shuffles one deck of cards at a time rather than multiple decks."

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