A federal judge awarded the plaintiff 5 million in an antitrust trial stemming from patent infringement claims.
Retained by Nixon & Vanderhye and Freeborn Peters
Bodog Poker Tech, a group of entrepreneurs who invented an automatic card shuffler for card tables, and their partners Poydras-Talrick Holdings LLC and Aces Up Gaming, were sued by SHFL Entertainment Inc. (SHFL). SHFL alleged that Bodog Poker Tech had violated two of its patents for its automatic shufflers. In an antitrust countersuit brought against Scientific Games Corp. (SGC), one of the world’s largest gambling equipment providers that had acquired SHFL, Bodog Poker Tech claimed that SHFL’s patents were fraudulent, and that SHFL illegally used those patents to stop Bodog Poker Tech from entering the market. Bodog Poker Tech’s counsel retained Matthew Lynde of Cornerstone Research to provide trial testimony on liability and damages.
The panel accepted Dr. Lynde’s damages estimate, awarding the plaintiffs 5 million.
Dr. Lynde framed the relevant market as the domestic market for casino-grade automatic card shufflers. He determined that the defendant wielded market power by virtue of its near monopoly market position in the relevant market. Finally, Dr. Lynde calculated a range of lost profits Bodog Poker Tech and three other entities incurred based on a likely growth path and revenue stream that they could have accrued but for the patent litigation by SHFL that forced them to leave the market.
After a ten-day trial, the jury found in favor of Bodog Poker Tech and three other companies using Dr. Lynde’s damages number of 5 million. The judge trebled the jury’s award of 5 million to 5 million.
San Francisco
