In a courtroom in Waco, Texas, District Judge Jude Albright made a decisive ruling in the case of Sightline Payments vs. Everi. He granted the defendant’s right to dismiss three Everi entities under Rule (b)(3) for improper venue and the final entity under Rule (b)(6) for failure to stake a claim.
Sightline Payments had opened the case on September 30 2021 by suing four Everi entities for the infringement of five patents related to cashless payment in the gaming industry. All four have now been cleared of any wrongdoing.
The patent infringement that Sightline brought to court accused Everi of operating in a regular place of business without having established the venue legally. It is the plaintiff’s responsibility to establish any physical venues within specific state borders.
However, Judge Albright found that only one of the four entities named by Sightline operated a physical gaming business, absolving the other three named in Sightline’s 2021 lawsuit.
The judge dismissed Sightline’s theory that connected the other three entities to the one established place of business. Furthermore, he dismissed claims of improper venue as Sightline had failed to allege any acts of infringement committed within the district by Everi’s one property.
Judge Albright is a regional judge on the Fifth Circuit and issues relating to patent cases are reserved for the Federal Circuit, where Sightlines failed to stake a claim. This proved to be detrimental to Sightline’s lawsuit as Albright found that Sightline had failed to stake any claim upon which a relief could be granted.
The law governing improper venue was set by the Supreme Court over three decades ago. It explicitly states a corporation resides in its state of incorporation (in this case, Texas). The Federal Circuit has held that a regular and established place of business requires that it must be a physical place in the district, a regular and established place of business, and it must be the place of the defendant.
Everi Holdings Inc. is a company based in Spring Valley, Nevada that produces slot machines and provides financial equipment and services to casinos.
