On September 22, 2009, a request for continued examination was filed by Full Tilt Poker, Pokerstars' predecessor, together with a response claiming that Oliveras did not disclose a processor configured to move a player from the table to a queue. The Examiner observed that the Oliveras system was capable of automatically moving a first player to a second table and that "it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to offer a queue of new players where new players can join to wait for an open seat." These claims were rejected on June 6, 2009.
On March 16, 2009, amended claims emphasizing the use of a queue to "automatically" reassign players to a new virtual table were submitted by Pokerstars' predecessor, Full Tilt Poker. The Examiner also saw nothing novel in using a processor to take seat location at the first table into account when reassigning a player to the next table. At that time the Examiner found all of Pokerstars' independent claims as being anticipated by an earlier patent application by Oliveras which taught a game machine system configured to automatically move a player at a first table to a second table. The first rejection dates back to December 7, 2008. players, and Full Tilt Poker agreed, in its own settlement with the United States, to assign its intellectual property to Pokerstars.Īt the time of this settlement, the original claims of the '573 application had been repeatedly rejected by the original patent examiner as being obvious over previously filed applications covering methods of assigning game players to new game tables.
Part of Pokerstars' $731 Million forfeiture payment to the United States was earmarked to pay balances owed by Full Tilt Poker to non-U.S. Pokerstars obtained the rights to the '573 application as part of its Jsettlement agreement with the United States Department of Justice, resolving civil money laundering and forfeiture claims arising from Pokerstars' operation of online gambling websites in the United States. A patent entitled "Computer Gaming Device and Method for Computer Gaming" will issue on May 20, 2014, as U.S. In a surprising turn of events, after multiple decisive rejections, Pokerstars' "Zoom Poker" patent application (11/316,573, published as US 2007/0155460A1) has been allowed as amended by the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO").
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