Rival Australian slot-manufacturing titans will square off in a U.S. federal court after Aristocrat Technologies Inc., the U.S. arm of Australia’s Aristocrat Leisure Ltd., sued Ainsworth Game Technology, alleging theft of intellectual property involving Ainsworth’s Jackpot Strike progressive link. Aristocrat claims it’s a direct copy of the features of one of its most popular products, the Lightning Link progressive.
Aristocrat’s lawsuit claims Ainsworth stole the design for Lighting Link to produce the Jackpot Strike product. “This case goes well beyond simple copyright infringement,” Aristocrat said in a statement, “and concerns allegations of extensive and deliberate misappropriation of trade secrets, confidential information and intellectual property.
“Upholding appropriate standards is part and parcel of ensuring ongoing trust in our business and industry, and is an important part of Aristocrat’s high compliance culture.”
Ainsworth replied in a statement that it is vigorously defending the claims made by Aristocrat in these proceedings.”
Last year, Aristocrat sued to recover documents from Ainsworth to discover how it developed Jackpot Strike and whether it contained features copied from the Lightning Link. That claim demanded Ainsworth hand over source code, mathematical tables, game rules, artwork and commercial documents relating to the new machine.
Lightning Link has been one of Aristocrat’s biggest hits worldwide, and has already a spawned derivative game series.
Both Aristocrat and Ainsworth were founded and then sold by the 95-year-old gaming legend Len Ainsworth.
