Australian Aristocrat Leisure VS Ainsworth Gaming Technology Dispute Escalates

The rivalry between two Australian gaming device makers, Australian Aristocrat Leisure and Ainsworth Gaming Technology, has been taken to a new level.

The Australian developer company, Aristocrat, is accusing Ainsworth Gaming Technology (AGT) of breaching intellectual property law by stealing their technology and incorporating it into the development of their own Jackpot Strike slot machine.

Aside from this, the developer is suing AGT of breaking Australian Consumer law. Both of these companies operate under Australian market with foreign partners.

“This case goes well beyond simple copyright infringement 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.”

“This case goes well beyond simple copyright infringement 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.”

The case states that AGT used the same technology Aristocrat used in developing the Lightning Link slot machine. However, the court papers on the filing aren’t available at the moment. Lightning Link became very popular with the audience and had a hugely positive impact on the company’s revenues, suring any other Aristocrat’s releases.

A Problematic Rivalry

Officials at the Aristocrat issued a statement regarding the lawsuit and said: “This case goes well beyond simple copyright infringement 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.”

Additionally, officials at AGT are not going down without a fight and had an answer regarding the lawsuit. The management of AGT stated that they will “vigorously defend” themselves against the allegations.

This is not the first time we see these two Australian developers clash swords. Their rivalry has been going on for over a year…

…back in April 2018, Aristocrat filed a legal action demanding access to Ainsworth files. The Sydney-based developer requested an insight into everything relating to the development of AGT’s Jackpot Strike. This included the game’s source code, mathematical tables and other commercial documents.

As a response to this, AGT said that “a reasonable search” of their documentation revealed nothing out of order and that the development of their new slot was completely authentic.

However, the drama does not stop here…

…Aristocrat also suspects AGT of corporate espionage through game designer, Sujay Prabhu. This game designer previously worked for AGT before coming to Aristocrat for only three weeks and then returning to AGT again. What makes everything even more suspicious, this person was bumped up to a rank of game design team leader position, right upon returning to AGT.

The plaintiff claims that Prabhu’s first project after returning to AGT was none other than Jackpot Strike. The developer then accused Sujay Prabhu of violating company policy by inserting a USB thumb drive into their servers with the goal of acquiring data which he did not have need of for his assignment at Aristocrat. Prabhu subsequently claimed to have lost this USB drive while moving to another house…

…what makes it even more interesting is the fact that the game designer in question may have been guilty of willful misappropriation of its intellectual property and insider info while working for AGT.

Source:

“Aristocrat Leisure sues rival Ainsworth over alleged IP theft”, calvinayre.com, July 9, 2019