LAS VEGAS, June 21, 2004 – LAWFUEL – Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc.
(NYSE: HET) said it plans to appeal a recent decision by the United States
District Court for the District of Nevada granting a Station Casinos, Inc.
motion for summary judgment in patent litigation between the two companies.
Harrah’s sued Station in July 2001 over infringement of Harrah’s national
customer-recognition system and methods patents (U.S. patent Nos. 5,761,647
and 6,183,362) (the “Customer Recognition Patents”) and its patent involving
the activation of physical instrumentalities through the use of a customer
reward card (U.S. patent No. 6,003,013) — the “013 Patent”.
In granting Station’s motion, the District Court last month ruled that
Harrah’s Customer Recognition Patents and a portion of the 013 Patent are
invalid. The District Court denied other motions by Station seeking to
invalidate and render unenforceable the patents. The District Court has
additional motions pending with respect to the portion of Harrah’s 013 Patent
claims that are not affected by the invalidity ruling. Harrah’s will dismiss
the unaffected 013 Patent claims, and will not pursue those claims against
Station.
“We expect that a dismissal of our remaining claims relating to the
013 Patent will enable us to expedite an appeal of the trial court’s ruling on
our Customer Recognition Patents and resolve our claims as promptly as
possible,” said Stephen Brammell, Harrah’s senior vice president and general
counsel. “A substantial percentage of trial court rulings in patent
litigation are overturned on appeal. We are confident that we will prevail on
appeal and that our patents will be found to be valid and enforceable. We
will continue to vigorously protect our patents against infringing parties.”
Founded 66 years ago, Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. owns or manages through
various subsidiaries 25 casinos in the United States, primarily under the
Harrah’s brand name. Harrah’s Entertainment is focused on building loyalty
and value with its target customers through a unique combination of great
service, excellent products, unsurpassed distribution, operational excellence
and technology leadership.
More information about Harrah’s Entertainment is available on the
company’s Web site, http://www.harrahs.com.
This release includes “forward-looking statements” intended to qualify for
the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these statements by the fact
that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These
statements contain words such as “may,” “will,” “project,” “might,” “expect,”
“believe,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “would,” “estimate,” “continue” or
“pursue,” or the negative or other variations thereof or comparable
terminology. In particular, they include statements relating to, among other
things, future actions, new projects, strategies, future performance, the
outcome of contingencies such as legal proceedings and future financial
results. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current
expectations and projections about future events.
We caution the reader that forward-looking statements involve risks and
uncertainties that cannot be predicted or quantified and, consequently, actual
results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not
limited to, the following factors as well as other factors described from time
to time in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission:
* the effect of economic, credit and capital market conditions on the
economy in general, and on gaming and hotel companies in particular;
* construction factors, including delays, zoning issues, environmental
restrictions, soil and water conditions, weather and other hazards,
site access matters and building permit issues;
* the effects of environmental and structural building conditions
relating to the company’s properties;
* our ability to timely and cost effectively integrate into our
operations the companies that we acquire;
* access to available and feasible financing;
* changes in laws (including increased tax rates), regulations or
accounting standards, third-party relations and approvals, and
decisions of courts, regulators and governmental bodies;
* litigation outcomes and judicial actions, including gaming legislative
action, referenda and taxation;
* ability of our customer-tracking, customer-loyalty and
yield-management programs to continue to increase customer loyalty and
same-store sales;
* our ability to recoup costs of capital investments through higher
revenues;
* acts of war or terrorist incidents;
* abnormal gaming holds, and
* the effects of competition, including locations of competitors and
operating and market competition.
Any forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and, as such, speak only as of the
date made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
