ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,499,736, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd. (North Ryde, Australia).

"Gaming device with activatable feature states" was invented by Dinh Tran (Wetherhill Park, Australia), Amy Batsiokis (North Ryde, Australia), Hiram Yu (Mortdale, Australia), Nicholas O'Sullivan (Beacon Hill, Australia), Philip Seifert (Macquarie Park, Australia), Ravi Khatri (Haryana, India), Sandeep Saharawat (Macquarie Park, Australia), Upinder Dhaliwal (Schofields, Australia), Lauren Chapple (Huntleys Cove, Australia), Romit Aggarwal (Kellyville, Australia), Robbert Van Elven (Westleigh, Australia), Emily Chew (Sydney) and Paul Connelly (Springwood, Australia).

Accordin...