There could be a virtual monopoly in the fast-fold market for PokerStars‘ parent company, Rational Group, according to a report on Monday from Pokerfuse. The article read in part, “Late last month, the [United States Patent and Trademark Office] decided to issue a patent to PokerStars’ parent company, Rational Group, for fast-fold poker. On May 20, Patent Number 8,727,850 will issue as ‘Computer gaming device and method for computer gaming.'”

Pokerfuse concluded, “This would effectively result in a PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker stranglehold over fast-fold online poker games in the United States.” An e-mail from PocketFives to PokerStars to confirm the Pokerfuse story was not returned at press time.

In 2010, Full Tilt Poker launched Rush Poker, effectively changing the poker market forever. In the game, whenever a person’s action in a hand ended, they were immediately whisked away to a new table with a new set of opponents where a new hand would begin. Overnight, players could log several hundred hands per hour, climb VIP ladders quicker, and generate more rake for an online poker room.

After Rush Poker, a litany of Rush Poker variants were rolled out, including Zoom Poker on PokerStars (May 2012), Fast-Forward on PartyPoker(August 2012), and Speed Hold’em on the iPoker Network (June 2012). As Pokerfuse pointed out, Fast-Forward games on PartyPoker in New Jersey could go the way of the dodo and 888‘s Snap Poker, the site’s fast-fold version, may never see the light of day if Rational’s patent held.

Lawyer Bill Gantz doesn’t necessarily believe the patent will hold, however, writing in a piece that appeared on Dentons.com, “The amendments which allowed this patent to issue should seem obvious to the entire poker industry and there should be ample grounds for vigorously challenging this patent.” The string of rejections of the patent application prior to it being granted stretched all the way back to 2008, according to the report.

Enforcement of the Rush Poker concept surfaced at the end of 2012, when PokerStars, which acquired Full Tilt in July of that year, assumed control of Full Tilt’s intellectual property. An attorney for PokerStars said at the time, “Together with our patent attorneys, we are undertaking a full analysis of the Rush Poker patent applications we have acquired. When the time is right, it is our intention to use these patents to protect the inventive elements of the Rush and Zoom products.”

According to Pokerfuse, Zynga, which offers a fast-fold game called Jump Poker, may be forced to jettison it if PokerStars chose to enforce its patent in the US. The site added, “According to intellectual property lawyer Bill Gantz… fast-fold games offered outside the US will not be affected.”

PokerStars and Full Tilt have no presence in the US in the three states that have legalized internet gambling: Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware. We’ll keep you posted on the latest.

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