Bingo patents has been ruled out in the States.
The US Court of Appeals has ruled that two patents concerning computerised bingo are not valid.
The case stemmed from a dispute between two bingo competitors in the States: Planet Bingo and Video King. The two companies provide electronic bingo services to casinos as well as several other clients.
The first patent was filed in 2000, and was granted in 2002. Both patents were originally granted to a company called Melange Computer Services, which was then sold to Planet Bingo in 2006.
In 2012, Planet Bingo sued Video King, and then in 2013, a district court judge dismissed the two patents, believing them to be abstract, since bingo management “consists solely of mental steps which can be carried out by a human using pen and paper.”
Lawyers acting for Planet Bingo argued that the patent included complex coding for bingo numbers to be called. However, the three judges were not impressed. They said that there was no need for a patent, since all that was needed are “two sets of Bingo numbers,” “a player,” and “a manager.”
“The function performed by the computer at each step of the process is purely conventional,” wrote US Circuit Judge, Todd Hughes.
Planet Bingo has not commented on losing their patent.
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