Posted on Wednesday, April 06 2011 @ 18:36 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Bright Side of News
reports EA is under fire by Robin Antonick, the founder of the Madden NFL video game series. Antonick accuses EA of breach of contract and fraudulent failure to pay royalties, and he seeks to get past and future royalties with interest, as well as all the profit EA made on the game series and its spin offs over the last two decades.
Specifically, the suit asks in its Prayer for Relief for "Disgorgement of all profits earned by Defendant from sale of Madden videogame franchise, NCAA Football video game franchise, and any other video game franchise utilizing the intellectual property of Plaintiff. Interest on such monetary relief." Doesn't look like EA has a prayer of getting out of this one. The suit also asks to recover attorney fees and the cost of the suit which at the time of filing amounted to $900 in fees, a drop in the bucket considering the full impact of any judgment.
Breach of contract and fraud form the basis of the lawsuit citing EA's fraudulent failure to pay royalties, widespread use of Antonick's intellectual property not only in Madden games, but other areas, and a pattern of intellectual property misappropriation. EA's hockey game was also noted as involving aspects of Antonick's work. A tag line on the product is "Slapshot puts a hockey stick fight in your hands". Looks like Antonick has a stick of his own aimed not at a puck, but at EA's bank account.
