Skillz Gaming CEO claims AviaGames copied patented technology
Skillz founder and CEO Andrew Paradise testified on the opening day of the company's trial against AviaGames, saying the competitor stole its patent-protected gaming platform. He claimed they changed it to breach the terms and conditions.
Paradise and three co-inventors were granted a patent in May 2017, referred to in the lawsuit as the "564 patent." The patent applies to a skills-based peer-to-peer betting platform. The patent covers technology for pairing first-time players with repeat players with similar skills based on user metrics.
During a direct examination conducted by his attorney Lazar Raynal on Friday in U.S. District Court in Northern California, Paradise testified that Skillz is primarily a business-to-business-to-consumer company and that on its platform Authorized game developers are available on. He said the Skillz platform allows developers to agree to the software's licensing terms and easily start marketing their games and share a revenue share of the revenue generated by the games.
According to Paradise, AviaGames hopes to lease the Skillz gaming platform as its own turnkey platform. Skillz’s CEO said the company has agreed to lend its patented “software development kit” (SDK) to Avia.
Platform Changes
Paradise testified that Skillz decided to award the patent to Avia because of the Hong Kong company's expertise in developing skill games.
Generally, we don’t negotiate with gaming companies," Paradise said."Their CEO, Vickie [Chen], is a fairly seasoned gaming professional with a track record of gaming promotions and owns Cornell MBA degree from Seoul University. "
According to Paradise, game developers will receive 50% of game revenue as long as they put their applications on the Skillz platform after agreeing to the terms. For example, if each player bets $2.50 in solitaire, the prize is $4.50, with Skillz and the developer each taking 50 cents.
However, AviaGames negotiated a 70% revenue share. Paradise said Skillz agreed to the terms because the company believed Avia could help market the Skillz platform.
The concept of companies negotiating with us, getting opportunities and getting a better share of the revenue is really the business resources they can bring to the platform, typically marketing, as well as game development acumen. "Paradise said.
Shortly after receiving the patented platform SDK, Paradise and Skillz alleged in a lawsuit that Avia cloned Skill Gaming technology, stole numerous games, and manipulated the patented player matching algorithm.
Specifically, the Skillz lawsuit accuses Avia of using computer bots instead of equally qualified real people to compete with its customers.
Opening Defense
AviaGames denies any wrongdoing. The company's attorney, Jerry Riedinger, said there was "more to the story than the plaintiffs claim."
Riedinger said in his opening remarks that AviaGames does not use bots but has developed a way for players to compete against each other without having to play the game at the same time.
"You'll learn about historical games. Here, players play at different times. Players play against people who have played the game before. Both are real people. "Both have played the real game, only one Played the game earlier,” Riedinger explained.
Lawyers say Avia solves Skillz's player mobility issues, which resulted in players often waiting to be matched through the platform.
"Skillz didn't like that we solved the problem," Riedinger asserts. The attorney further argued that Avia did not infringe Skillz's patent because Avia did not use player matching technology, which was the primary reason for the patent.
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Source: www.casino.org
