On August 13th, 2008, under a settlement approved by the Board of Public Works, Maryland can share in some of the profits from a popular lottery game that the state claims it helped conceptualize and has since spread all over the world. The state spending panel approved the agreement with the Scientific Games International Incorporated, which is based in Georgia.
The agreements put an end to a dispute over a multiplier option featured in the Maryland Lottery's Keno Bonus Game, which permits players to pay extra and improve their price if they choose the winning numbers in a keno game. Neither the state nor the organization would say anything on the settlement but a document filed before the BPW before the meeting states that the state stands to receive $20,000 annually, aside from half of any royalties that the organizations gets from the multiplier or the revenue from selling their patent.
The settlement comes before the lawsuit went to court. Maryland also get two hundred fifty new flat screen televisions for the state lottery as well as the option to utilize the multiplier for free, while giving up its share on the patent of the multiplier. The assistant attorney general for the lottery, Laura F. Davies said that the settlement would also allow the state to continue utilizing the technology without giving some compensation to the company, no matter who utilizes it as a contractor.
Lottery Director Buddy Roogow commented that Maryland is really getting a good deal. Roogow added that they have basically convinced Scientific Games, who is the patent holder, than it would be better than us giving them some payment compared with Scientific Games giving them some payment. Roogow said that majority of the royalties came from the technology in the business in Australia. But the state is hoping that its use will widen and create more earnings for the state.
The state had claimed that it should have a portion of the patent because it had helped the company factor in the multiplier into the keno games while Scientific Games still has a contract with the state. According to the website of the Scientific Games, the bonus game was launched in Maryland in 1999. Deepak Somaya, an assistant professor of strategy who specializes in intellectual property at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign commented that the state may have benefited in the case by winning the right to utilize the technology without paying.
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John M. Thorpe
