ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,602,969, issued on April 14, was assigned to Aristocrat Technologies Inc. (Las Vegas).
"Gaming system providing group-based awards" was invented by Steven Santisi (Las Vegas) and T. Grant Bolling Jr. (Maryland Heights, Mo.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Innovations in game design features of an electronic gaming device are presented. Groups of players can be defined that may win an award that is also available to non-group based players. If the award is won by a group-based player, the award can be distributed to at least a portion of the group members in addition to the player who won the award. A group profile can define criteria for ...