Ameranth Receives "Notice of Allowance" For New Strategic Gaming/Poker Patent

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Ameranth, Inc. today announced that it has received a new "Notice of Allowance" from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a strategic and comprehensive new patent covering virtually all aspects of modern poker room automation‒including Internet/Web player interactions, player registrations and all aspects of player tracking/player databases in/from poker rooms. This new patent will include 42 new claims (some of which are also applicable to poker rooms/casinos planning to participate in the many emerging online poker initiatives)‒all of which were issued over all prior art and all reexamination arguments submitted by Genesis Gaming and IT Casino Solutions (ITCS) against Ameranth's two previously-issued patents.

This new patent allowance, along with Ameranth's multiple victories over Genesis Gaming and ITCS in 2012 in all three of their reexamination attempts, confirm the validity and breadth of Ameranth's gaming/poker intellectual property. While Ameranth's lawsuit was temporarily "stayed" pending these reexaminations, the damages owed to Ameranth from Genesis/ITCS and the casinos/rooms using their infringing products have continued to grow, and this new patent (once it issues in early 2013) will position Ameranth in its strongest strategic position yet. Ameranth also anticipates a near term lifting of the stay in its prior lawsuit as well due to its success in the reexaminations, which are near conclusion and will result in confirmation of claims of the reexamined patents. It is now abundantly clear that Ameranth has defeated Genesis's and ITCS's attempts to invalidate its patents, and will continue to defeat all such efforts to invalidate its patents‒patents that cover virtually all automated operations of modern poker rooms and now also including the Internet/Web connections to/with those poker rooms.

Ameranth filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on February 2, 2011 (asserting infringement of U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,431,650 and 7,878,909) against defendants Genesis Gaming Solutions, Inc., IT Casino Solutions LLC, Hollywood Park Casino, Inc., California Commerce Club, Inc. and Normandie Club, LP and later added Hustler Casino as an additional defendant. Subsequently, Hollywood Park Casino and Normandie Club (as well as others) wisely took licenses to Ameranth's patents.

The 42 new claims of this new soon-to-issue patent include virtually all aspects of modern poker room operations, and include both method and system claims. The new patent will include system features vital to any modern poker room‒including player tracking, seating, table management, waitlisting, notifications, public displays, active dealer displays, must moves, lock ups, reward systems, rollovers, jackpot displays and much more.

Ameranth has already prevailed against Genesis and ITCS in their attempts to invalidate Ameranth's two existing patents. First, the USPTO confirmed in Reexamination Nos. 90/001,859 and 90/011,915 the validity of 17 claims of Ameranth's strategic gaming patent (U.S. Pat. No. 7,878,909) titled "Products and Processes For Operations Management of Casino, Leisure and Hospitality Industry" which further confirms Ameranth's innovation and leadership role for many current and emerging automated casino applications and deployments. Second, the recent USPTO validity determination as to 27 claims of Ameranth's 7,431,650 patent‒in Reexamination 95/001,698, further confirms Ameranth's leading and pioneering role in automating casinos overall and enabling the automation of the modern poker room. After being defeated in its Reexamination attempt as to the 7,431,650 patent, Genesis has attempted to appeal the USPTO confirmation of the 27 confirmed claims, but Ameranth is entirely confident that Genesis's weak appeal will be dismissed or will fail, just as all the other desperate attempts of Genesis and ITCS to avoid compensating Ameranth for their unauthorized use of its intellectual property have failed.

Ameranth's breakthrough 7,878,909 dealer tracking/scheduling patent will soon be confirmed with valid claims‒which broadly cover almost all aspects of scheduling, assigning, tracking, rotation, and monitoring and optimizing the deployments and scheduling of dealers within the modern casino and/or poker room–including public displays, wireless/internet connections, interfaces to/with "at the table shuffling machines," reports, legacy system integration and many other key aspects critical to the modern casino and/or poker room.

"We are very excited that the United States Patent Office has again confirmed the breakthrough nature and validity of our strategic gaming patents by yet another patent allowance, with 42 powerful and broad new claims," said Vern Yates, Ameranth's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We will continue to offer licenses to this technology for the companies and casinos/poker rooms employing it or seeking to employ it, however we are also determined to enforce our patents against infringers"‒added Yates.

Ameranth's industry leading Poker Room Manager (PRM) system is deployed and operational in many casinos and operate in several of the largest and most prestigious poker rooms worldwide such as Crown Casino in Australia, and Bicycle Casino in California.

About Ameranth, Inc.:

Ameranth, Inc. ( http://www.ameranth.com) is a recognized leader in the hospitality market. Ameranth has also been awarded ten technology and "best product" awards.
Tel: (888) AMERANTH Fax: (858) 362-0151
http://www.ameranth.com mail to: [email protected]

SOURCE Ameranth, Inc.