Light & Wonder Agrees to $127.5M Settlement in Aristocrat IP Dispute
Las Vegas-based slot supplier Light & Wonder will pay AUD 190 million ($127.5 million) to settle an IP dispute with Aristocrat and remove two games from the market.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:The settlement, announced on Sunday, resolves a lawsuit Aristocrat filed in U.S. District Court in Nevada in February 2024 alleging that Light & Wonder copied proprietary "math" and other protected elements from Aristocrat’s Dragon Link and Lightning Link titles when developing Light & Wonder’s Dragon Train and Jewel of the Dragon products.
Under the agreement, Light & Wonder will pay AUD 190 million, acknowledge that Aristocrat's math information was used in the development of the contested games, cease any further use of the identified materials and destroy documents reflecting that information. The deal also requires Light & Wonder to remove Dragon Train and Jewel of the Dragon from casino floors and distribution channels.
Judge Gloria Navarro had earlier granted Aristocrat a preliminary injunction in September 2024 ordering the removal of the Light & Wonder titles after finding evidence that trade secrets had likely been used to develop Dragon Train. Light & Wonder complied with that injunction at the time, saying it disagreed with the ruling but would follow the court’s order.
Light & Wonder is pleased to resolve this matter and move forward. We are firmly committed to doing business the right way – respecting our competitors’ intellectual property rights while protecting our own rights. This matter arose when a former employee inappropriately used certain Aristocrat math without our knowledge and in direct violation of our policies. Upon discovery, we took immediate action and have since implemented strengthened processes aimed at preventing similar issues in the future. This settlement protects the interests of our customers, employees, and shareholders and allows us to continue our focus on developing and delivering the market-leading content our customers expect – without distraction or disruption.
Aristocrat’s CEO and managing director Trevor Croker said his company would continue to defend its intellectual property. "As an ideas and innovation company, our intellectual property is vital to our ongoing success. We are committed to protecting the great work of our dedicated creative and technical teams. We welcome this positive outcome, which includes significant financial compensation and follows the decisive action we took to ensure the preservation of Aristocrat’s valuable intellectual property assets. This decisive action included securing a preliminary injunction in September 2024, at which time the court recognized that Light & Wonder was able to develop Dragon Train by using Aristocrat’s valuable trade secrets and without investing the equivalent time and money", Croker said.
Related: Light & Wonder Faces 50 Million Loss from Dragon Train Legal Battle
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Market Impact and Industry Takeaways
The dispute has forced operators to pull machines from the floor and substitute other titles. Light & Wonder previously said Dragon Train accounted for a mid-single-digit percentage of its approximately 33,000 leased units worldwide – roughly 2,200 machines – and that customers replaced the affected cabinets with other Light & Wonder offerings after the court order.
Dragon Train first appeared in Australia in 2023 and launched in the U.S. in March 2024, finding placements in tribal casinos in California, Kansas and Minnesota. Aristocrat’s complaint identified two former Aristocrat developers, Emma Charles and Lloyd Sefton, who moved to Light & Wonder in 2021 and who, the complaint alleged, worked on the disputed products.
An intellectual property attorney who works with gaming companies and spoke on condition of anonymity said the case underscores how vulnerable machine design and math algorithms can be when staff move between competitors. "When developers move between firms, the line between legitimate know-how and protectable trade secrets can be thin – and this sector shows how quickly that can trigger litigation. Operators and suppliers need robust onboarding, auditing and document controls to manage the legal risk", the attorney said.
The settlement also arrives as Light & Wonder transitions its capital markets presence: the company delisted from the Nasdaq last year and now trades on the Australian Securities Exchange.
Considerations for Operators and Regulators
For casino operators, the judgment and settlement reinforce the need for procurement clauses that address IP risk, machine provenance and contingency plans for game withdrawals. Regulators and tribal gaming authorities may also re-evaluate certification and testing procedures to ensure mechanically and mathematically distinct products are not deployed without appropriate review.
While the settlement closes this chapter between Aristocrat and Light & Wonder, it is likely to prompt renewed internal reviews across the industry on employee movement, record-keeping and technical safeguards to protect intellectual property in a sector where game math and feature design are core commercial assets.
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