BODOG PATENT DISPUTE TAKES A NEW TURN

22 February 2008

Now advertising contacts receive subpoenas


After an apparent hiatus in the bitter patents dispute between online gambling group Bodog and 1st Technologies LLC, it appears that the latter has made a another move in its attempt to extract millions from Bodog in terms of a court finding.

This week news surfaced that subpoenas had been served on several Bodog advertising contacts, seeking the presentation of all records, documents and correspondence related to payments received by Bodog-branded products or services. Respondents are also asked to produce correspondence between Bodog founder Calvin Ayre and all bank records and income tax verifications.

The patents dispute received wide publicity early last year (see previous InfoPowa reports) when 1st Technologies LLC headed by Dr. Scott Lewis successfully wrested control over Bodog's domains in multi-million dollar US court actions after Bodog failed to appear. The 1st Technologies legal team claimed that Bodog had infringed a patent relating to a "method and system for interactively transmitting multimedia information over a network which requires a reduced bandwidth".

The case led to some expensive damage control and restructuring by Bodog, and a spate of bitter and at times insulting posts on Calvin Ayre's blog labeling 1st Technologies as "patent trolls".

Calvin Ayre, the founder of Bodog has used his own personal blog to refute the charges and has insisted that 1st Technology owner, Scott Lewis, is nothing more than a "patent troll".

In return, Lewis claimed that such epithets were defamatory, pointing out that his company is a technology development company that includes activities such as creating inventions, licensing, and commercializing innovation via business ventures and product/software development.

"We have dozens of innovations patent pending, a core set of issued patents relating to multimedia transmission optimization, and a software development in the legal/regulated Internet gaming field," Scott Lewis said in a statement to gambling information portal 911.

"I’m the sole inventor for all of our issued patents, some of which we license to leading companies, involved in high performance multimedia entertainment products and services, who respect intellectual property rights. Licensing helps 1st Tech invest in new innovations and software development efforts – and reflects decades of effort and the greater part of my life’s work."

Scott claims that going after the Bodog domains was a legitimate action backed by a court order, and he insists that Bodog was given ample time to respond to the litigation.

"Starting in July 2005 our law firm sent multiple letters over the next year noticing infringement and proposing licensing negotiations. After not getting any reply, we finally as a last resort filed suit in September 2006."

911 reports that prior to the subpoenas on various Bodog advertising contacts, Lewis suggested a man-to-man discussion with Ayre: "...no lawyers, no ‘your people’/’my people’ in the way – either by phone or in person. Let me know …who knows, we just might even agree on something or at least agree to disagree."

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa