Aristocrat has reissued its complaint against Light & Wonder alleging that the latter has copied the maths and some audiovisual elements from its Dragon Link and Lightning Link slot titles.
Following last month’s developments where Aristocrat saw its initial complaint partially dismissed, the Dragon Link supplier has issued its first amended complaint “to stop Light & Wonder from free-riding” on the success of its slot machine.
Filed with the US District Court for the District of Nevada, Aristocrat’s reissued complaint refers to the maths within Dragon Link as “difficult, if not impossible, for others to replicate”, while suggesting that L&W has conducted a “wide-ranging campaign to copy Dragon Link” by hiring several former Aristocrat employees.
The defendant suggests that this campaign began in 2022, when L&W renamed one slot title from Dragon Unleashed to Dragon Unleashed Link. According to Aristocrat, this was a “transparent attempt to sow confusion” with Dragon Link.
Jewel of the Dragon, another L&W title that was the main focus of Aristocrat’s previous complaint, has been identified by Aristocrat as “a cheap knock-off”, claiming that the title copied Dragon Link’s graphics, sounds and trade dress.
However, the supplier noted that Jewel of the Dragon “failed to capture the unique player experience created by the underlying Dragon Link maths” and that this led to L&W’s attempt to emulate said maths with Dragon Train – the third and final slot game mentioned in the complaint.
This is where former Aristocrat employees come into play. Emma Charles is mentioned due to her previous role as an Aristocrat game designer that worked on Dragon Link and Lightning Link – a sequel to the former. Charles was allegedly “intimately familiar with the maths models on which those games are based”.
To strengthen its claims, Aristocrat described the success of its Dragon Link and Lightning Link titles, noting them as “among the most successful games Aristocrat has ever released”.
The supplier claims to have introduced the ‘Hold & Spin’ feature to market with these titles and confirmed that Dragon Link “remains Aristocrat’s highest performing game to this day”.
Aristocrat places that success as due to the game’s unique mathematical make-up and mechanics, which it alleges have been copied by Light & Wonder’s own titles.
The defendant explained that it has implemented certain “technical security measures” with its employee base to protect trade secrets through “regular training”, of which the maths behind a game would come under.
Copyright for the audiovisual elements within Dragon Link is owned by Aristocrat, and the supplier claims to have obtained copyright registrations covering specific parts within those audiovisual elements.
Light & Wonder has been accused of being “aware of Dragon Link’s success” and subsequently targeting the game by “designing competing products”.
Aristocrat suggests that the “name, appearance, sounds and gameplay” have been copied in the three aforementioned L&W slot releases – Dragon Unleashed Link, Jewel of the Dragon, and Dragon Train.
The complaint referred to Light & Wonder’s 2021 annual financial report in which the supplier noted that it would shift away from lottery and sports betting to focus on the gaming sector.
Aristocrat pointed to a particular quote from the report that read “the gaming machine sector is highly competitive” and identified Aristocrat as one of L&W’s primary competitors.
This development within L&W’s business plans led to the company hiring a number of former Aristocrat executives and game designers, with the defendant’s complaint naming 13 specific employees including Jamie Odell, Executive Chairman of L&W and former CEO of Aristocrat.
Other notable employees include Matt Wilson, Director and CEO of L&W, formerly President and Managing Director, Americas, at Aristocrat; Toni Korsanos, Executive Vice-Chair of L&W, formerly CFO and Head of Strategy at Aristocrat; Siobhan Lane, EVP and CEO of Gaming of L&W, formerly SVP of Marketing and Gaming Operations at Aristocrat and Ted Hase, SVP, Game Design of L&W, formerly SVP of R&D at Aristocrat.
The complaint then highlighted Light & Wonder’s hiring of Rich Schneider as Chief Product Officer in July 2021, who arrived having previously held the same role at Aristocrat.
Aristocrat explained that Schneider was CPO when Dragon Link was developed, providing him with “firsthand knowledge” of both Dragon Link’s and Lightning Link’s “success and features”.
Lloyd Sefton, an artist currently working for L&W that has previously been employed by Aristocrat from 2001 to 2016 as a graphics designer/illustrator before becoming a lead artist, also gained a mention.
Using images to back-up its claims, Aristocrat’s complaint describes elements within the three L&W titles that it believes have clearly been stolen from Dragon Link’s trade dress.
The complaint refers to the use of orbs, the colours of the text within the title of the game, how the jackpots are displayed, the ways in which elements within the bonus game are showcased and even the similarities between each supplier’s game’s respective sequels.
The complaint aims to back-up claims of copyright infringement within Jewel of the Dragon specifically by stating: “The design choices available to L&W in creating a slot machine game were virtually unlimited. L&W had no need to appropriate substantially the same audiovisual elements as Dragon Link.
“On information and belief, L&W intentionally seeks to confuse players and to lead them to believe, incorrectly, that its Jewel of the Dragon games were developed by Aristocrat, or are otherwise from or associated with or endorsed by Aristocrat, with the goal of enticing players to play the Jewel of the Dragon games.
“Moreover, to the extent such players have unsatisfactory experiences with the Jewel of the Dragon games, it harms the reputation of Aristocrat and its Dragon Link games.”
The complaint also referred to the fact that each game is marketed within similar channels, contributing to “the likelihood of confusion created by this intentional offering of nearly identical goods with confusingly similar trade dress”.
At this point, the complaint then focuses on Dragon Train, using further images to display how the game has copied elements from Dragon Link’s audiovisuals.
It was the Dragon Train title that Charles had been accused of utilising her knowledge and trade secrets revolving around the Dragon Link game to produce, and Aristocrat claims to have found evidence from a L&W investor presentation in 2023 that supports this.
In said presentation, Siobhan Lane, CEO of Gaming at Light & Wonder, introduced newly-employed Charles as having “worked with Scott Olive on the Lightning Link product for many years…we’re proud that Emma just this week in Australia launched her inaugural product under the Light & Wonder brand, Dragon Train”.
As mentioned in the previously partially dismissed complaint, Aristocrat’s Australian counsel initiated discussions with L&W in September 2023 over the misappropriation of its trade secrets in connection with Dragon Train.
Aristocrat requested that L&W produce documents about the design and development of Dragon Train, and L&W responded with documents that referred to ‘Aristocrat,’ ‘Dragon Link,’ and ‘Lightning Link.’ However, L&W refused to provide other key requested documents, including maths, reel strip layouts, weighting tables, and source code.
When Aristocrat initiated counsel in the US to request similar documents in January 2024, L&W rejected Aristocrat’s requests and refused to provide Aristocrat’s US counsel access to materials already submitted to Aristocrat’s Australian counsel.
In the latest complaint, Aristocrat made a demand for a trial by jury to resolve the case, seeking relief from Light & Wonder in the form of damages on several counts of trade secret misappropriation, copyright infringement, trade dress infringement and deceptive trade practices.