Card Shuffler Draw Beats Shuffle Master

Posted on | March 20, 2008 | No Comments

2008-1239 Shuffle Master v. Vendingdata
D/NV 2:04-cv-01373

Plaintiff Shuffle Master appeals Judge Brian E. Sandoval’s order granting summary judgment of non-infringement to Vendingdata on the automatic card shuffling patent 6,655,684.  The key term for the analysis involved "forming at least one set of cards within the apparatus from at least one deck of playing cards."

The court construed "set" to mean "hand," and the dispute turned on whether each "set" had to be separated from the others or whether, as plaintiff argued, the cards could be randomized and then placed in a stack of cards consisting of multiple hands.

The court also granted summary judgment on doctrine of equivalents, ruling that "no reasonable jury could conclude that the creation of a randomized stack of cards inside the [Vendigndata] internal chamber is equivalent to the creation of discrete hands. . . . to conclude otherwise would be to vitiate the second claim limitation entirely."

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