Las Vegas ticket specialists Tix Corporation is in the midst of obtaining a U.S. patent for its proprietary discount ticket distribution system, which sells Vegas show tickets from box office locations and kiosks.

The company moved a step closer to that goal this week when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a Notice of Allowance (NOA), which the company said “confirms that the patent application has been examined and is allowed for issuance as a patent and that the prosecution on the merits is closed.”

The NOA is not a final approval, but instead means that the entity in question has “survived the opposition period” and is being allowed to move forward with the registration process, according to the patent office. Next up for Tix Corp. is its filing of a statement of use for the ticket distribution system, which must be filed within the next six months. The distribution system in question is what the company already uses to sell tickets.

By patenting the system, Tix Corp. could potentially license and sell it as a standalone product to other ticketing or entertainment companies, perhaps boosting its standing as a competitor to Ticketmaster.

“We are very excited to have achieved what we believe to be a major milestone as it may provide our Company with a number of distinct competitive advantages,” Tix Corporation Chairman and CEO Mitch Francis said in a statement. “This Notice of Allowance covers a number of the key aspects of discount ticketing operations and technological systems related to the distribution of unused tickets, which our wholly-owned subsidiary, Tix4Tonight in Las Vegas pioneered.”

According to an abstract from one of the company’s patent application documents obtained by TicketNews, the ticket distribution “system is provided for facilitating the distribution” of tickets to events. The system includes a central distribution processor to which patrons are provided access for determining the availability” of tickets and purchasing available tickets.

In addition to box office locations and kiosks around Las Vegas, Tix Corp. also sells tickets over the internet and by telephone, all of which are tied into its central distribution processor.

Tix Corp.’s Tix4Tonight brand is strong in Las Vegas, but the public company’s stock price has only recently begun to climb out of the doldrums. It trades under the symbol TIXC, and closed up almost 3 percent at $3.95 a share today, September 25. Click here to see the stock ticker.

Francis could not be reached for comment, and a company spokesperson had yet to respond to questions at press time.