Interview with Wayne Allyn Root of www.WinningEDGE.com
Wayne Allyn Root, a professional sports handicapper with Winning EDGE International who also happens to be the Libertarian Party’s 2008 Vice Presidential candidate, didn’t take any chances on enforcing his company’s patent. General Patent represents Winning EDGE in the licensing and enforcement of its patent, and in that regard filed a lawsuit on behalf of Root’s company, GWIN (now Winning EDGE).
All five defendants have now settled: Preferred Picks Publications, Inc. a/k/a Playbook Enterprises of Weston, FL; Corcom, Inc. d/b/a Don Best Sports of Las Vegas, NV; VegasExperts.com of Cleveland, OH, VegasInsider.com of the UK, Canadian company SportsDirect, Inc. and its Irish subsidiary Covers Media Group Ltd.
Here Root discusses his colorful background, how he decided to entrust his company’s patent infringement case to General Patent, and why he’s glad he did.
What is your background?
I'm a professional sports oddsmaker and prognosticator/handicapper- meaning I predict the outcome of sporting events against the pointspread (odds set in Las Vegas). The media has called me "The King of Vegas," "The Face of Las Vegas Sports Gambling," and "America's Oddsmaker." Since 1991, I've had hundreds of people ask me for my professional advice and analysis. I've written numerous books on the topic- including ROOT on Risk: Betting to Win on Sports, The Zen of Gambling, and The King of Vegas' Guide to Gambling.
I've also hosted numerous television shows for 20 years on the subject of odds and sports handicapping. These have included "King of Vegas" on Spike TV and "Wayne Allyn Root's WinningEDGE," which has aired since 2000 on Fox Sports, Comcast Sports, Superstation WGN, Spike TV and Discovery Channel (transponder). In 2006 I was honored with my own star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars, joining only 25 Vegas legends ever honored, including Wayne Newton, Liberace, Bobby Darin, Siegfried & Roy and Sammy Davis Jr.
How did you get involved in the field of your patented technology?
When I was 16 years old, the New York news media wrote a story on my uncanny success picking pointspread winners. They called me “The Next Jimmy the Greek” and “The Betting Whizkid.” I received even more publicity during my 4 years at Columbia University.
By the time I was 25 years old, I was predicting pointspread winners on 100+ NBC "Source" radio stations across the country. By the time I was 27 years old, I was sitting alongside my TV co-host, Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder on CNBC (then called Financial News Network). It's quite a story! I am living proof that the American Dream is still alive.
How did you find out that your patent was being infringed? What did you do when you realized your patent had been infringed?
My company owned the patent to transmit and sell predictions online. Yet everywhere we looked other sports prediction and handicapping web sites were doing the same thing – thereby infringing on our patent. We began our search for a patent attorney.
How did you look for an attorney?
We did our research and found out that General Patent Corporation was the best in the field of patent litigation. We decided that if General Patent would take the case, we'd move forward to protect our patent.
How did you find General Patent Corporation?
A combination of online research and word of mouth. We spoke to several respected attorneys and to others involved in patent lawsuits. The name of General Patent kept coming up. We knew we had found the best in the field.
Could you have enforced your patent without General Patent?
No. There were literally hundreds of sports handicapping and prediction web sites infringing on our patent at the same time that we decided we had to enforce our rights. But we knew we needed a professional to guide us and lead us into battle to protect our patent.
If you invent something new and find that your patent is infringed, would you work with General Patent again?
Without hesitation. They made this entire experience easy to deal with. They did all the legal research. They did the hard work. They even laid out the monies necessary to enforce the patent. Trying to do this without General Patent would have been absolutely impossible.
Gambling expert Wayne Root doesn’t take risks with his intellectual property, and neither should you! Contact General Patent Corporation today to discuss your patent infringement case.