This case was closed on August 19, 2009. Plaintiff Gametech filed a voluntary dismissal of the case under FRCP 41(a) 1. FRCP rule 41 allows for the plaintiff to dismiss an action without a court order by filing a notice of dismissal before the opposing party serves either an answer or a motion for summary judgment. In this case Grand Vision had not responded to Interlink’s suit with any court filings before Interlink filed the voluntary dismissal. Given the short space of time between filing of the suit, and its dismissal, it is likely that the parties begain settlement talks shortly after the suit was filed.

Original Post:

GameTech International, Inc. is a supplier of electronic bingo equipment, including hand-held bingo units, fixed-base units and turnkey account and management software. Tim Carson and Merle Frank apparently used to work for GameTech, but left to start their own competing company Grand Vision Gaming. GameTech alleges that the defendants took GameTech's IP when they left, including source code and other trade secrets, and GameTech filed this lawsuit on April 15, 2009, alleging copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, unfair competition, breach of duty of loyalty, and breach of contract (based on employment agreements). This appears to be a straight up software-based copyright infringement case, but we will track it nonetheless and let you know if anything interesting comes of it.

The case is 1:09-cv-00039-RFC, filed April 15, 2009, in the Billings division.