Lottery Company Knows Patent Infringement Suit Is A Safe Bet

from the stop-the-insanity dept

Interest in online lotteries is heating up, so perhaps it's no surprise that industry turf wars are starting to break out. The news is that one peddler of lottery technology is suing another over patent infringement. According to the story, the patent involves "online lottery games that have an optional bonus wager." Now we're not online lottery experts (despite our previous forays into this topic), but we're guessing that the "bonus wager" is an entirely obvious idea that probably shouldn't have received a patent in the first place. It's hard to imagine what the real innovation is here. Giving people the option to gamble more? Applying an old mechanism to online games? On its face, it seems like a frivolous suit, but we wouldn't bet that it gets thrown out. After all, we are living in the age of pointless patent battles.
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  • identicon
    Precision Blogger, 10 May 2005 @ 5:07pm

    For example ...

    I'll let you bet that you're right: it's an obvious idea. And if you're right, I'll let you bet how long it will take to overturn the patent.
    - PB

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Jojo, 11 May 2005 @ 1:20am

      Re: For example ...

      The question with any patent suit is - who has the most money? This is a major problem with patents that severely impacts small inventors.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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