As first reported by Gambling911.com last week, subpoenas have been sent to some advertising venues that work in conjunction with Bodog Life, and online gambling website. This has nothing to do with current legislation related to the Internet gambling industry but rather involves an ugly patent lawsuit.

Last year, 1st Technology and its principals were successful in having the once dominant Bodog.com domain name removed from the Web. The enterprise claimed that Bodog have infringed upon one of its patents related to a "method and system for interactively transmitting multimedia information over a network which requires a reduced bandwidth".

Calvin Ayre, founder of Bodog has used his own personal blog to refute the charges and has insisted that 1st Technology proprietor, Scott Lewis, is nothing more than a "patent troll".

Lewis claims otherwise in a statement to Gambling911.com.

"First of all, if you did you research you’d know that myself or 1st Technology LLC are not “patent trolls” – and to continue to say this is not only defamation/libel, it’s stupid. 1st Tech is a technology development company – which includes creating inventions, licensing, and commercializing innovation via business ventures and product/software development. We have dozens of innovations patent pending, a core set of issued patents relating to multimedia transmission optimization, and a software development in the legal/regulated Internet gaming field. I’m the sole inventor for all of our issued patents some of which we license to leading companies, involved in high performance multimedia entertainment products and services, who respect intellectual property rights. Licensing helps 1st Tech invest in new innovations and software development efforts – and reflects decades of effort and the greater part of my life’s work."

Bodog failed to appear in court to defend itself and lost the case by default. Judge Roger L. Hunt ordered Bodog to pay (including interest) $48,937,456 to 1st Technology in March for patent infringement.

The case then moved to the state of Washington this summer for enforcement, 1st Technology's attorney Venkat Balasubramani said. Bodog also failed to appear there.

"They've definitely been provided notices at various stages of both the lawsuit and the enforcement action," Balasubramani said. I can't speculate as to why they might have done that (not appeared). It's safe to assume they knew about it and definitely ignored it."

Scott also insists that Bodog was given ample enough time to respond, insisting that going after the Bodog domain was a last resort.

"Starting in July 2005 our law firm sent multiple letters over the next year noticing infringement and proposing licensing negotiations – letter sent to (Calvin's) San Jose Costa Rican address listed on the Bodog website. After not getting any reply, we finally as a last resort filed suit in September 2006, and then called Bodog's customer service group (who said they would be sure to pass the message to you legal dept.)."

That never happened, according to Lewis. Bodog was then servered at their San Jose Costa Rica office in November 2006.

Prior to subpoenaing various advertising venues, Lewis issued the following request to Calvin Ayre:

"I propose a man-to-man discussion between the two of us – no lawyers, no ‘your people’/’my people’ in the way – either by phone or in person. Let me know …who knows, we just might even agree on something or at least agree to disagree."

Meanwhile, the dispute has spread to advertising venues (none of which can be identified here by us).

The subpoena requires that all records, documents and correspondents related to payments received by Bodog-branded products or services be produced. Furthermore it requires subjects to turn over any correspondence between Calvin Ayre and all bank records and income tax verifications be submitted.

At press time, it was unclear how many parties have been subpoenaed or what further legal action might be taken. Neither Lewis nor Ayre have provided Gambling911.com with copies of the subpoenas that were sent out. Ayre has not yet commented. Lewis has hinted to Gambling911.com that he is still willing to settle this matter outside of court.

Courtesy of Christopher Costigan, www.Gambling911.com Publisher. Reach Chris at CCostigan@CostiganMedia.com

NOTE: I have spoken with BoDog representatives and have been assured that pending legal action has not affected their assets or gaming operations as a sportsbook, who Sports Audio Features. If things cahnge, we will take action to have the best interests of our clients. Tony George
 

Tony George
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