Aristocrat reaches $3m settlement with Castle Hill Gaming

Video Gaming Technologies (VGT), a subsidiary of Aristocrat Technologies, has reached a settlement worth $3m (£2.4m/€2.7m) with Class II and III games developer Castle Hill Gaming (CHG) over an intellectual property rights infringement lawsuit.

Filed in 2017, the case concerned various alleged infringements of certain VGT trademarks, trade dress and trade secrets.

The settlement states that CHG will now change out and no longer use the game titles New Money, Arctic Cash, Arctic Ice and Welcome to Nugget Mountain, along with associated artwork and characters, and any variations of the games.

CHG, which supplies land-based gaming content to US tribal operators, will also remove and no longer use certain machine features and paytables. CHG has until April 1, 2020 to ensure that all settlement criteria have been met.

These settlement terms are in addition to the $3m that CHG has also agreed to pay to VGT.

“This settlement again confirms VGT's (and Aristocrat's) determination to protect our intellectual property, including VGT's market-leading Class II portfolio,” Aristocrat Technologies president, Hector Fernandez, said.

“We will continue to be proactive and aggressive in defending our assets going forward.”

Meanwhile, Aristocrat Technologies also remains locked in an intellectual property rights infringement dispute with rival Ainsworth Game Technology.

In July, Aristocrat filed legal action against Ainsworth, accusing the gaming machines and content provider of infringing on its intellectual property rights. Aristocrat cited a breach of Australian Consumer law, but Ainsworth denied the accusations, vowing to “vigorously defend the claims”.