In a duel matching lawyers, not swords, of two video game development companies, Epic Games has prevailed.
A U.S. District Court jury in Raleigh awarded Epic a lopsided victory over Silicon Knights in a legal battle dating back to 2007.
The jury awarded Epic $4.5 million in damages while rejecting the Canadian company’s claims involving a dispute over use of Epic’s Unreal game engine in development of Silicon Knights titles.
Silicon Knights is the developer of “Too Human,” the game at the center of the dispute, and “Metal Gear Solid.”
Silicon Knights licensed Epic’s “Unreal 3” game engine to develop “Too Human.” It sued Epic for fraud, breach of contract and other claims. The developer said Unreal Engine 3 did not work as Epic represented it would and that Epic has been unable or unwilling to fix it.
Epic countersued, claiming that Silicon Knights misappropriated Epic’s technology.
The jury agreed, finding that Silicon Knights had breached a license agreement with Epic, misappopriated trade secrets and infringed copyrights, Epic said in a statement issued after the verdict.
Epic said it also had 30 days in which to seek reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and costs related to the case.
Jurors heard testimony over nine days.
The judge in the case had already ruled that even if Silicon Knights had prevailed it would have been limited to $1 in awards on the various counts considered in the case.
“We are delighted with the jury’s verdict and all of the hard work done by the Hunton & Williams legal team,” said Jay Andrews, Epic’s General Counsel, in a statement.
