New Roulette Layout Application Refused By Australian Patent Office

On 16 October 2020, in the decision of Crown Melbourne Limited [2020] APO 47, the Australian Patent Office refused a patent application by casino owner Crown Melbourne Ltd for a new roulette table layout after it found that the new layout did not provide any mechanical or technical benefit and therefore was not a manner of manufacture. The decision demonstrates that even physical inventions, especially games, may not be patentable in Australia if they do not deliver a technical innovation.

The new roulette table layout

Figure 1 below shows the roulette table layout that Crown Melbourne sought to patent, alongside the traditional single-zero and double-zero layouts. The new layout differed from the double-zero original in that the 00 space did not share a boundary with the 2 and 3 spaces. This variation was said to add betting options that were available in the single-zero but not in the original double-zero game, which would have allowed players accustomed to the