Gaming developer Light & Wonder has agreed to pay $127.5 million to rival Aristocrat Leisure, resolving a prolonged legal dispute over alleged misuse of confidential intellectual property tied to slot machine development.
Key Takeaways
- Light & Wonder has agreed to pay Aristocrat $127.5 million to settle trade secret allegations linked to slot game development.
- The settlement required Light & Wonder to stop using Aristocrat’s confidential math information and destroy related materials.
- The agreement concluded litigation that included a Nevada injunction and extensive discovery across two jurisdictions.
This case began in March 2024, when Aristocrat filed a lawsuit in Nevada state court, alleging that Light & Wonder had improperly obtained and used the company’s mathematical models and game mechanics related to the popular slot machine brand Dragon Link. Related discovery matters were also litigated before the Federal Court of Australia.
Confidential information relating to the math of the game, the symbols, pay tables, and bonuses in these games was alleged by Aristocrat to have been incorporated into Light & Wonder’s Dragon Train and Jewel of the Dragon.
In statement released on Monday, Aristocrat CEO and Managing Director, Trevor Croker said, “Aristocrat welcomes fair competition but will always robustly defend and enforce its intellectual property rights. As an ideas and innovation company our intellectual property is vital to our ongoing success. We are committed to protecting the great work of our dedicated creative and technical teams. We welcome this positive outcome, which includes significant financial compensation and follows the decisive action we took to ensure the preservation of Aristocrat’s valuable intellectual property assets. This decisive action included securing a preliminary injunction in September 2024, at which time the court recognised that Light & Wonder was able to develop Dragon Train by using Aristocrat’s valuable trade secrets and without investing the equivalent time and money.”
By September 2024, a preliminary injunction in favor of Aristocrat had been granted by the Nevada court, as it seemed likely that the intellectual property of Dragon Train had been lifted by Light & Wonder. The ruling put even more pressure on Light & Wonder as it entered deeper into the discovery process, which involved reviewing more than a million in-house documents.
As part of the settlement, Light & Wonder admitted that certain information about Aristocrat had been utilized and agreed to delete all documents containing that information. The company also committed to making no further use of the disputed information.
Light & Wonder CEO Matt Wilson said, “Light & Wonder is pleased to resolve this matter and move forward. We are firmly committed to doing business the right way - respecting our competitors’ intellectual property rights while protecting our own rights. This matter arose when a former employee inappropriately used certain Aristocrat math without our knowledge and in direct violation of our policies. Upon discovery, we took immediate action and have since implemented strengthened processes aimed at preventing similar issues in the future. This settlement protects the interests of our customers, employees, and shareholders, and allows us to continue our focus on developing and delivering the market-leading content our customers expect—without distraction or disruption.”
Both parties agreed that any future conflicts, regarding either intellectual property or the development of the game, would be resolved privately and not in court.
