Quoted from luvthatapex2:Why would Stern need a patent for this feature? It could be reproduced and called something else, it's just a formula.
In a number of industries these days, the philosophy is "If it even <i>might</i> qualify for a patent, apply for the patent. Even if we have no intention of enforcing the patent, even if it gets thrown out later, it'll still prevent <i>someone else</i> from patenting it and using that patent against us."
And there's quite a history of patents in pinball. In my opinion, one of the biggest competitive advantages that Bally/Williams had over Data East during the peak of their rivalry was that Bally/Williams machines could automatically compensate for switch failure and Data East machines legally couldn't. That made a big difference in perceived reliability, and probably led to some of the uninteresting one-ramp-that-awards-everything-eventually Data East rulesets.
Cream Ridge, NJ
