Epic, creators of the Unreal Engine, has prevailed in court against Silicon Knights, creators of Too Human who sued Epic in 2007 over issues with the engine (basically that it was supposedly unfinished and sabotaged their work). "Case over. Jury finds for Epic on all counts," Epic's Mark Rein just Tweeted. The case had been whittled down, with only $1 at stake. Chainsaw gun trumps reviving Valkyrie!
UPDATE: Epic's official statement:
Epic Games Wins Lawsuit Against Silicon Knights, Awarded $4.45 Million
Epic Games secured a significant victory today against Canadian company Silicon Knights when a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina found in favor of Epic on all claims.
The jury rejected Silicon Knights' claim that Epic breached its Unreal Engine 3 license agreement with Silicon Knights. The jury also found in Epic's favor on all of its counterclaims, namely that Silicon Knights breached the license agreement, misappropriated Epic's trade secrets, and infringed Epic's copyrights in the Unreal Engine 3 code. The jury awarded Epic damages totaling $4.45 million. Epic has 30 days in which to file a request to the court for reimbursement of attorneys' fees and costs. The court previously had thrown out Silicon Knights' fraud claims after nine days of testimony.
"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.
The suit, case number 5-07-CV-00275-D, was originally filed in July 2007 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
UPDATE 2: Silicon Knight boss Denis Dyack says: "We are disappointed by the outcome and we plan on appealing."