Macau: Scientific Games loses patent appeal

Macau’s Court of Final Appeal has rejected an appeal over the company’s patent application for electronic gaming machine technology.

Macau.- Seven years after its original request, Scientific Games has lost its appeal over a patent application for electronic gaming machine (EGM) technology.

Macau’s Court of Final Appeal has found that the firm’s patent request did not fulfil all the required criteria.

The patent submitted by Scientific Games described an EGM that used a dealer station and individual, connected player terminals. However, the city’s Economic and Technological Development Bureau said “it did not add anything that wasn’t already in use in the gaming industry.”

The company filed an appeal which was first dismissed by Macau’s Court of First Instance and then by the city’s Court of Second Instance in October 2019.

Two years on, Macau’s Court of Final Appeal has now reached the same conclusion, finding that “the EGM existed long before the patent application was filed.”

Last year, the company bolstered its senior management team with a number of appointments including former Aristocrat President, Matt Wilson, as executive vice president and group chief executive.