Welcome to Skilled in the Art. I'm Law.com IP reporter Scott Graham. We've got more PTAB news today and this time it has nothing to do with the Supreme Court's SAS Institute decision (well, almost nothing). But before we get to that, ante up for a round of IP poker. And always, email me your thoughts and feedback and follow me on Twitter.

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Gordon Vayo. Photo: Joe Giron/WPT

It's All Good, Until You Win

For most of us, “Black Friday” conjures up holiday season shopping mall nightmares, or perhaps 1970s Steely Dan nightmares. For poker players, Black Friday refers to a very specific date: April 15, 2011, the day the Justice Department indicted executives of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and others for running unlawful internet gambling schemes. That caused the disappearance of online poker from most of the U.S. But PokerStars.com ultimately adapted by letting people use the site so long as they weren't doing so from within the United States.

Los Angeles' Gordon Vayo says he followed that rule by obtaining part-time residence in Canada in 2013 and getting cleared by PokerStars to play from there. It went smoothly until Vayo won a major event at PokerStars' Spring Championship of Online Poker tournament, known as SCOOP. When Vayo tried to cash out his $692,460 in winnings, PokerStars froze his account and launched what Vayo's attorney calls a “nearly year-long inquest” into whether he really played the tournament from his Ottawa digs.