Court told Aristocrat Technologies worker’s devices seized as part of intellectual property case

Devices belonging to a worker of gaming company Aristocrat Technologies have been seized as part of an intellectual property infringement case.

Aristocrat Technologies is based in Sydney and led by Aristocrat Leisure’s Trevor Croker.

A laptop, hard drives and USBs belonging to an Aristocrat Technologies worker have been seized after the gambling giant launched an intellectual property infringement claim in the Federal Court.

During a Thursday afternoon hearing into the matter lodged against Dinh Toan Tran, the court heard a property in Sydney was searched and devices, including one laptop, two hard drives, one mobile phone (which was returned) and two old iPads, were taken.

As well, a “relevant” USB – referred to as the “focus of the investigation” – and another five USBs were taken.

Aristocrat Technologies is a gaming technology group headquartered in Sydney.

Its CEO is Trevor Croker, who also leads Aristocrat Leisure – the publicly listed gambling behemoth which announced a normalised net profit after tax of $619m for the six months to March 31 last year, up 16.7 per cent.

It is expanding in the US market, having recently installed NFL slot machine games and also announced a $1.8bn takeover of the NASDAQ-listed online gaming company NeoGames.

Mr Tran is the principal director of game design, executive producer and head of design and development, according to his LinkedIn profile.

In orders published on the Federal Court’s portal on January 9 but restricted from publication until 4.30pm on Thursday, Mr Tran was instructed to hand over usernames, passwords and other information to an independent lawyer who undertook the search “to access the computers and mobile phones he was provided by the applicant (Aristocrat Technologies) to use in the course of his employment by the applicant”.

Mr Tran was ordered to not destroy or delete any of Aristocrat’s material within his possession, the orders stated.

Beyond a list of devices – including those that were seized – the orders identified that more than 6800 files were downloaded from Aristocrat’s server on December 3 last year at 7am.

Mr Tran was restrained from the use or disclosure of “any other confidential information or copyright protected material of Aristocrat”, according to the orders.

Representing Aristocrat, barrister John Hennessy, SC, agreed with Federal Court Judge Yaseen Shariff that the “urgency” from Aristocrat’s point of view was gone after they secured the devices.

“As we assured your honour … (a) degree of sensitivity (was given) to the occupants of the house,” Mr Hennessy said.

A “lengthy conferral process” took place between Mr Tran and an independent lawyer appointed to conduct the search on Wednesday morning, and Mr Tran also retained legal advice from Thomson Geer. Thomson Geer also provide legal advice to The Australian.

An “image” was taken on Mr Tran’s mobile before it was returned to him, Mr Hennessy said.

On behalf of Mr Tran, barrister Ken Brotherson told the court his client’s concern about the court case was that “it shouldn’t have started”.

“(It) imposes a considerable degree of stress. Processes are time consuming and incredibly costly,” Mr Brotherson said.

Justice Shariff said he understood Mr Tran had the “usual complaint” about “having the knock on the door”, but otherwise the matter was conducted professionally.

A spokesman for Aristocrat Technologies declined to comment while the matter was before the court.