Aristocrat Pressures Light & Wonder over Evidence Access

The legal battle between Aristocrat Technologies and Light & Wonder over the Dragon Train slot game series has gotten worse, with new US court filings showing growing friction about sharing evidence and discovery rules.

Tensions Rise as Aristocrat Targets Ex-Staffer in IP Battle with Light & Wonder 

Papers filed on April 8 show Aristocrat slamming Light & Wonder for blocking key discovery attempts to uncover the full extent of what it says is the misuse of its game designs and math models. Aristocrat claims Light & Wonder has followed court-ordered discovery and is using legal tricks to hide internal messages from being looked at.

The Australian gaming giant is zeroing in on former employee Emma Charles, who started working at Light & Wonder in 2021. Aristocrat claims Charles played a key role in creating Dragon Train and might have leaked sensitive design details outside her team. This has sparked wider worries about whether several game titles now under scrutiny are original.

Light & Wonder says it is sticking to existing disclosure agreements, but it is pushing back against what it calls “duplicative” and “burdensome” requests. The company thinks Aristocrat is trying to skip the electronic search framework they agreed on before and instead wants big manual document reviews. They are butting heads over whether information about the company’s work in Australia should be part of the US case. Light & Wonder says this stuff should be handled in Australia, not the US.

Dragon Train Fallout Grows as Light & Wonder Expands Internal Review

The fight has already hit wallets hard. Light & Wonder’s stock dropped 20% after an earlier decision ordered them to pull all Dragon Train machines from North American markets. Things got trickier when Aristocrat changed its complaint to include concerns about other games like Jewel of the Dragon. Light & Wonder reacted by stopping sales of that game and offering to swap out existing units.

Even with the legal troubles, Light & Wonder says its bigger internal check — now covering all Hold & Spin games out before mid-2021 — has not found any more cases of copying. The company also points out that Dragon Train Grand Central, a social game they made after the fight started, does not use any parts that are being argued about.

As both sides keep fighting over how much proof to show and how to handle it, the case is still a big legal fight that could affect the whole gaming world. With no end in sight, everyone’s watching the courtroom, waiting to see what happens next in the industry.