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22 November 2018Patents

Victory for fantasy sports provider in gaming patent IPR

Fantasy sports provider FanDuel has persuaded the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to invalidate multiple claims of a patent belonging to competitor Interactive Games.

The PTAB delivered its final written decision on Tuesday, November 20.

At the centre of the dispute was patent number 8,771,058. Registered in 2014, the patent covers various embodiments that “include game configurations that are specific to a location”.

FanDuel sought an inter partes review of some of the ‘058 patent’s claims and the PTAB instituted a review.

The challenged claims included methods of determining where the mobile gaming device is being played, and methods of crediting a player account with a payout based on the outcome of a game.

FanDuel alleged that the patent’s claims were obvious in light of other patents filed between 2000 and 2006.

For example, FanDuel cited one patent disclosed a mobile gaming system which includes a wireless mobile communication system (Carter). It describes a system capable of determining a gambler’s location and creating a jurisdictional profile.

In agreement with FanDuel, the PTAB found “a preponderance” of evidence which supported the fact that the Carter patent disclosed the claimed game configuration determinations of the ‘058 patent.

Another patent relied on by FanDuel discloses a method and apparatus for enabling a player to select features on a gaming device (Walker). The patent covers several location-varying features.

FanDuel claimed that it would have been obvious to a person skilled in the art to include Walker’s location-varying outcome feature in Carter’s jurisdictional profiles.

The PTAB agreed that there would be “ample motivation” for someone skilled in the art to combine these two elements.

Overall, the PTAB found that claims 1, 7, 8, 9, and 19 of the ‘058 patent were unpatentable, but claim 6, which was also challenged by FanDuel, was not shown to be unpatentable.

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