ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,670,767, issued on June 30, was assigned to Aristocrat Technologies Inc. (Las Vegas).

"Systems and methods for bulk incrementing a bonus prize and repeatedly providing the bonus prize in association with a plurality of free spins" was invented by John Ludwick (Reno, Nev.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An electronic gaming machine includes a processor configured to control a display device to display a matrix of symbol positions and a bonus meter, where the bonus meter displays a bonus prize. In response to a bonus game trigger condition being satisfied, the processor is configured to control the display device to display a plurality of v...