Intellectual Property Law

It May be a Brutal Rocktober: Counterclaim Filed in Activision Lawsuit

By Chris Bennett, Tudor Carsten, Michael R. Coburn, Sarah Dale-Harris, Pablo Guzman, Danielle (Dani) Lemon, Chris Metcalfe and David Spratley

In a counterclaim filed last week, game maker Double Fine Productions allegedly accused Activision Entertainment Inc. of trying to kill the scheduled October 2009 release of the game "Brutal Legend". Brutal Legend features Jack Black as a heavy metal roadie fighting evil in an ancient mythical world. The counterclaim was filed in response to a lawsuit launched by Activision in June. In the lawsuit, Activision reportedly claimed it never surrendered its publication rights to Brutal Legend and as a result Double Fine's transfer of the rights in the game to Electronic Arts ("EA") was conducted improperly. The lawsuit also allegedly attempts to stop competitor EA from releasing the game. It is reported that Double Fine's counterclaim accuses Activision of engaging in unlawful practices and a conspiracy to protect sales of Activision's franchise "Guitar Hero".

Originally, Double Fine developed Brutal Legend for Vivendi Universal Games, which was acquired by Activision in 2008. Purportedly, Activision showed little interest in the game and dropped it from its roster which Double Fine felt opened the door for it to transfer the publication rights to EA. The hearing on Activision's motion to block the release of Brutal Legend is reported to be scheduled for July 30th.

Coverage at Augustachronicle.com

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Full post as published by Video Game Law Blog on July 30, 2009 (boomark / email).