Epic Games responds to Silicon Knights case

Epic Games has offered an official statement to the case from Silicon Knights, outlining claims that were dismissed by the court, and pointing out that this doesn't equate to a final ruling.

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Epic Games has offered an official statement to the case from Silicon Knights, which was recently granted permission to go before a federal jury. It outlines some of the claims that were dismissed by the court, and points out that allowing other claims to go forward doesn't equate to a ruling, Develop reports.

The court entered judgment in favour of Epic on several claims, rejecting Silicon Knights' claims that it could cancel its license agreement, that Epic interfered with its contractual relationships with publishers, and that Epic has acted unjustly under the license.

    The court did not rule on the merits of Silicon Knights' remaining claims. The court was not permitted to judge the credibility of witnesses or evidence, or otherwise take into account Epic's opposing evidence, and therefore merely acknowledged that, under the rules of civil procedure, it had to allow a jury to consider both sides’ evidence on the remaining claims.

    Allowing those claims to move forward to a jury is not a ruling on their merits. The court simply concluded that the disputed evidence should be heard and resolved by the jury.

Epic went on to say it "remains confident that it will be fully vindicated at trial."

Yesterday, we reported that a federal court granted Silicon Knights the ability to present most of its allegations to a federal jury regarding the Unreal Engine 3 dispute. Among the claims are fraud, negligent misrepresentation, unfair competition, breach of contract, and breach of warranty.

The case has already been going on for years, having started in 2007. Subpoenas were issued in 2008, but since then the case has been fairly quiet. Now that it's going to a federal jury, we should hear more as it develops.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 1, 2011 2:00 PM

    Comment on Epic Games responds to Silicon Knights case, by Steve Watts.

    • reply
      April 1, 2011 6:07 PM

      I think there most definitely is a case for Silicon Knights, but doubt that they will get off Scott free for the code they took... If they took it. Epic had a responsibility to the people paying them for Unreal tech.

      My guess is that the court will rule against both on parts of the case and that SK will end up with a little bit of cash, but not much.

    • reply
      April 2, 2011 8:51 AM

      It is a sad situation all around. If it pans out and EPIC did violate their contract and doubled up support and development duties on their team then shame on the management and administration for not only not holding up their end of the bargain, but making the work load that much harder on their own R&D/Dev staff.

      Either way, we will probably not find out the truth as far as the trial is concerned until Unreal 4 or 5 is out considering the way the US Legal system works. :-) I just hope that EPIC learns from this and either covers their a** better or makes their contracts more definitive.

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