This lawsuit smells like bullcrap to me.

Many lawsuits in the US are nothing more than legalized extortion, and they usually look like this.

The only thing this lawsuit indicates to me is that JJP is making serious money, that JJP just announced a ticket dispenser mod for WOZ which directly competes with Elaut's products, and that Elaut wants a piece of the action as retribution for new competition from an ex-employee.

You can't squeeze blood from a stone, so Elaut sees enough assets in Jack, and in JJP specifically, to go on a fishing expedition/lottery ticket purchase courtesy of the US tort law system. Took three years to figure it out, Elaut?

Yeah, right. More like took three years for JJP to start serving up competition with ticket redemption pinball innovation. This, after Jack delivered to Elaut one of their most successful products ever, the WOZ coin pusher. So they know he has the expertise to eat their lunch HONESTLY, without resorting to something stupid like embezzlement.

Good for Jack to announce this on these forums himself. Greedy plaintiffs typically threaten bad publicity before filing, so take the fight to them. Can't wait for this thread to be revisited in 3-5 years.

This isn't about embezzlement: it's about JJP entering the ticket redemption business with the ticket redemption pinball and Elaut desperately trying to get a piece of the action, because JJP is making/has potential to make serious coin.

Utter greedy bullshit because Elaut can't innovate, so they'll try to outlawyer.

This stuff pisses me off.

Um... I think you're ALLOWED to do that with a gift. That's why it's a gift.

If he needed it to pay a bill to stay afloat, I can't think of a better use for a gift.

Lloyd's a good guy, and I hope the sale of the BDK helped him make ends meet. Once again, it's a GIFT.

And you also left this part out: the suit was filed about 2-3 weeks AFTER JJP announced they were entering the ticket redemption game business by selling a module allowing their pinball machines to dispense tickets, putting it in direct competition with Elaut, should JJP ever bring the product to market.

Clearly Elaut is afraid of JJP competition. So, yeah, I'd buy a JJP pinball without any worry whatsoever.

By the letter, you are correct. In substance, however, my point stands.

Official public announcement of JJP redemption was at London's EAG show, January 13-15ish 2015, but the efforts being made towards development were known within the industry well beforehand.

For instance, public filing of trademark for "Pindemption" was in JUNE, 2014.
https://trademarks.justia.com/863/10/pindemption-86310429.html

Just before EAG, in December, it became clear that JJP intended to act on that trademark and actually mass produce a pindemption machine after successful site testing (earnings went from $300/week to $1000/week with redemption mode per http://www.8-bitcentral.com/blog/2015/pindemption.html ). I'd have to think Elaut was not too thrilled by this.

Garbageness of this suit will be obvious in 3-5 years. Revisit this thread then.

Note further that the trademark PINDEMPTION filing was published for public evaluation and opportunity for opposition on November 11, 2015, as per link at beginning of this post. I contend at this point, Elaut figures out they have been caught, legally, with their pants down. And then suspiciously enough, Elaut's lawsuit follows one month later. You do the math.

The good news for those of us who are fans of pinball, regardless of opinion of JJP, is that this injects new youth into the ranks of us pin fanatics. It wasn't long ago when demographics for pin were in a literal death spiral. Now it's holding fast/growing. With pindemption, it EXPLODES. Good for pin popularity. Good for us, Stern, DP, Heighway, etc.

Bad for Elaut, who want to maintain control over the crapdemption market.

Anyway, apparently this is why JJP has always been oriented towards family friendly themes: those are the themes welcome in the ticket redemption business. The Walking Dead? Not so much (not that there's anything wrong with that...).

... which is EXACTLY why "pindemption" is such a big deal for the pinball hobby.

And why Elaut is concerned enough to try and slow it down via garbage lawsuits.

Marry video, ticket redemption, and family friendly themes and you've got a formula for pulling in the younger generation, whether you like tickets or not. The earnings brought in by ticket-enabled WOZs tell the story.

Garbage suits tend to be loaded with histrionics as the facts are insufficient.

My own judgement is that this is written in a sensationalist style which immediately causes me to question whether the plaintiff is sincere or merely wants to saber-rattle his way into a settlement.

Among the things I found misleading was the suggestion that Mr Guarnieri did a wholesale dismissal of staff without cause in order to put his "cronies" in, when this article from Vending Times July 2009 http://www.vendingtimes.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=Articles&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=4DFA3A2165AA4340B30504BB3A0191DF
indicates that part of Elaut's expansion plan, after acquiring Monduce, was hiring Jack as CEO and merging Jack's company, pinballsales.com, INTO Elaut USA. When a merger happens, typically duplicate positions are removed and the CEO gets to pick who he wants to keep. And Jack chose his team from his original company, and note he replaced Rosenberg who was president of Monduce prior to the merger. Rosenberg was reinstated AFTER Jack left to create JJP and is current president of Elaut USA... the entity suing JJP. Sour grapes anyone?

Yeah, real shocking /sarcasm.

This complaint is full of that stuff. It's only half the story, but just that bit of innuendo leads me to believe its not worth the paper its printed on, and just there to be a nuisance by making outrageous suggestions, propagating them in public forums like this one, only to encourage settlement before JJP has developed enough of a warchest to withstand the costly challenge, even if it is meritless.

Garbage suit that I remain convinced has more to do with sour grapes and JJP entering the redemption business via pinball than substance.

Either way, time will tell. But the theatrics of the complaint ascribing nefarious motive behind routine post-merger house cleaning reeks of bullshit to me.

Yes. Stupid.

(The lawsuit. Not you.)

The act of accusation/filing the suit is a tool of extortion in and of itself, as the process is drawn out, expensive, and allows for over-the-top, highly visible public accusations without having to back any of it up for years.

The post you quoted refers to lawsuits in general and is non-specific to this case, so there are no "sides" to know. But anyone with even a cursory knowledge understands this about our tort system, plaintiff and defendant attorneys alike. Indeed, it is by design, to encourage settlement.

But in the spirit of your question, I understand enough, including having read the dishrag of a complaint, to come to the opinion that if it flows like a sewer, looks like a sewer, sounds like a sewer, and smells like a sewer, it probably is full of sewage.

I have no doubt that in a few years, when this has run its course, my opinion will be validated. But we don't have to argue: the court system will grind away at it and time will tell.