This week in the news, the JCM American Corp. talked about being more than a little dissatisfied with Mars Electronics International, but it wasn’t until today they did something about this. They have now announced that they have filed a complaint for patent infringement in U.S. District Court against the company known as MEI. The complaint alleges patent infringement on two JCM patents: U.S. Patent 5,420,406 and U.S. Patent 5,372,361.
They say that this happened by one or more of MEI's products. This is the main reason for the complaint. They are just a little more than dissatisfied from this all, they are down right angry enough to take it to court.
Patent '406, issued in May 1995, is directed to a bill validator. This is supposed to be with an integrated bar code detector. This bill validator with bar code detector patent is relevant to gaming devices, because it includes the ability to accept a bar coded ticket used in "ticket-in/ticket-out" gaming machines. Patent '361 was issued in December 1994 and is directed to a bill handling apparatus for a gaming machine. The main problem with these patents is that JCM has never licensed or authorized MEI to make, use, sell, any invention that had anything that resembled parts that are covered in the patent.
JCM Vice President of Gaming Solutions Tom Nieman ends up looking bad when the company under them breaks the law. The gaming industry has extended its vote of confidence in JCM, and MEI hurt them. So it is because of this they needed to defend their technology, if they want to continue honorably in the business. |
