A patent infringement lawsuit filed by Sightline Payments against Everi Holdings was dismissed earlier this month by a federal judge in Texas, who ruled the state was the improper venue for the case.

Las Vegas-based Sightline filed the lawsuit on Sept. 30, alleging that financial technology and payment processing rival Everi infringed on five of the company’s patents related to cashless gaming, including technology that allows a player to transfer funds from their financial account to a digital wallet for gaming play.

U.S. District Court Judge Alan Albright ruled a claim for patent infringement must be brought in the judicial district where the defendant either resides or has a regular and established place of business.

Everi’s corporate offices and financial technology division are located in Las Vegas, while the company maintains its games division offices in Austin, Texas. The judge didn’t rule on the merits of the lawsuit, only that Texas was an improper venue for the case because Sightline failed to allege any acts of infringement committed within Texas by any of the Everi companies.

A spokesman for Everi declined to comment on the ruling.

In an emailed statement, a Sightline spokesperson said, “We are committed to vigorously defending our intellectual property and maintain that this is the appropriate jurisdiction for our claim.”

Sightline said in its original filing that its intellectual property counsel reviewed Everi’s mobile wallet for potential patent infringements, and claimed to have found five violations.

More than a decade ago, intellectual property disputes over slot machine innovations flooded federal courtrooms. Analysts said it’s too early to determine if lawsuits over cashless gaming technology would spawn similar legal tussles.At last year’s Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, major gaming equipment providers displayed a multitude of new cashless gaming and digital payment products. The technology, including mobile wallets – smartphone apps that store payment cards and other information in a digital format – is being heralded as a transition for one of the last cash-dependent industries.

This article originally appeared in the June 22, 2022 edition of Indy Gaming published by the Nevada Independent.