Aristocrat Secures Preliminary Injunction Against Light & Wonder Over Dragon Train
Slot supplier Aristocrat Technologies has achieved a significant legal victory in its case against Light & Wonder concerning alleged infringement of Aristocrat’s intellectual property, including misappropriation of Aristocrat’s trade secrets in connection with L&W’s Dragon Train game.
On September 23, Judge Gloria M. Navarro of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada issued a decision granting Aristocrat’s motion for a preliminary injunction on its trade secret claims against L&W. The court enjoined L&W from “any continued or planned sale, leasing, or other commercialization of Dragon Train.”
The court’s decision finds that Aristocrat is “extremely likely to succeed in demonstrating L&W misappropriated Aristocrat’s trade secrets in (L&W’s) development of Dragon Train.”
The court recognized that, by misappropriating trade secrets relating to Aristocrat’s market-leading Dragon Link and Lightning Link games, L&W “was able to develop Dragon Train without investing the equivalent time and money.”
Dragon Train is one of many slots from various manufacturers that utilizes the “hold-and-spin” game mechanic that was pioneered by Aristocrat’s Dragon Link and Lightning Link games. This is, however, Aristocrat’s first legal claim to the feature as intellectual property.
In granting the preliminary injunction, the court noted “the public interest in protecting trade secrets and preventing competitors from receiving an unfair advantage.”
Light & Wonder announced it is working to comply with judge’s order. Speaking in a video statement, CEO Matt Wilson sought to address investor concerns over the case.
L&W is developing a new version of the game: Dragon Train 2.0, which Wilson said will remain part of the supplier’s offering for many years. He said the next iteration of the game would be in compliance with the court’s order, although he did not provide a specific timeline for the game’s relaunch.
“We’re working actively on this right now and working quickly to get this out as high priority,” Wilson said. “We expect Dragon Train to continue to be a franchise in our portfolio for many years to come.”
Notably, he said changes would be minimal as the court’s order only relates to a small portion of the overall game.
“It is just certain aspects of the map that are being challenged,” he said. “There are a lot of elements in this game that have made it successful, such as the art, sounds, animation and brand. These things are not affected by the order.”
Wilson also confirmed L&W has been in contact with customers about removing the existing Dragon Train game from its offering. This covers both the North America and Australia markets. L&W is offering other games from its portfolio to make up for the loss of Dragon Train on client units.
