Antigua Threatens to Act Against U.S. Intellectual Property Rights

Antigua has threatened to act against U.S. trademarks, copyrights and intellectual property rights, in response to the U.S. position in the World Trade Organization dispute regarding internet gambling. The WTO decision, however, does not reveal the extent of the issues relevant to cross border wagering.

Around $100 million has been won from U.S. players through abuse of U.S. intellectual property rights by most Antigua internet casinos. For example, the most popular proprietary casino table game is Three Card Poker. The right to offer Three Card Poker to U.S. players has never been granted to any Antigua internet casino. Yet most Antigua internet casinos offer Three Card Poker to U.S. players, and in the process, knowingly infringe U.S. patents related to Three Card Poker. Ironically, Antigua seeks relief from the WTO, while contrary to WTO principles Antigua fails to rectify infringement of patents and other intellectual property rights.

Antigua is proposing to act against U.S. intellectual property rights as retaliation against the U.S., whilst ignoring that most Antigua internet casinos already abuse U.S. intellectual property rights to deceptively and unethically generate revenue from U.S. players.