It's not surprising that Harrah's lost this one. Patent law is not so
broad as to protect a process, or a new way of offering an existing
service. If that were the case, then nobody except the originator of
the phrase would be able to ask, "Do you want fries with that?" The
first used car dealer who thought of using his children as ad props
would be the only one who could do so. The inventor of the VOLUME
control could force everyone in the world to pay him a royalty on
their audio equipment. Et cetera!
That said, it's obvious that Harrah's attack was a bad-faith gesture
to help solidify its hold on the only gaming market in the US where
it ISN'T dominant: Las Vegas. The Harrah's group of casinos has
famously offered NOTHING to locals, and nothing at all special to
tourists. They fail to prosper here because their approach of "Here's
a casino. Now everybody come flooding in" works in places like
Mississippi or Arizona or Detroit, but not here, where there's
competition, and hence, value.
Not that I wish to see Stations Casinos (aka Evil Incarnate) to
prosper, either. To paraphrase a Monday Night Football announcer: It's
a shame somebody had to win this one.
Alien vs. Predator: Stations beats Harrahs
Are the Maloof Brothers (Palms Owner) our only corporate casino
friends?
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "rockofjello333"
<rockofjello333@y...> wrote:
It's not surprising that Harrah's lost this one. Patent law is not
so
broad as to protect a process, or a new way of offering an existing
service. If that were the case, then nobody except the originator
of
the phrase would be able to ask, "Do you want fries with that?" The
first used car dealer who thought of using his children as ad props
would be the only one who could do so. The inventor of the VOLUME
control could force everyone in the world to pay him a royalty on
their audio equipment. Et cetera!
That said, it's obvious that Harrah's attack was a bad-faith
gesture
to help solidify its hold on the only gaming market in the US
where
it ISN'T dominant: Las Vegas. The Harrah's group of casinos has
famously offered NOTHING to locals, and nothing at all special to
tourists. They fail to prosper here because their approach
of "Here's
a casino. Now everybody come flooding in" works in places like
Mississippi or Arizona or Detroit, but not here, where there's
competition, and hence, value.
Not that I wish to see Stations Casinos (aka Evil Incarnate) to
prosper, either. To paraphrase a Monday Night Football announcer:
It's
ยทยทยท
a shame somebody had to win this one.