Intellectual Property Law

'Earth No More' Creates Controversy for 3D Realms

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

According to reports, Duke Nukem developer 3D Realms is being sued for copyright infringement over an as-yet-unreleased game entitled 'Earth No More', due out in 2009. The suit was filed by Darin Scott and Edward Polgardy of Cinemagraphix Entertainment, who claim that they shopped a game called 'Earth No More' to a number of companies, including 3D Realms, in 2005. Although that game was never picked up, the plaintiffs claim that 3D Realms (under the moniker Apogee Software) has created a game 'virtually identical in substance'.

According to a forum posting from Scott Miller at 3D Realms, the company is fully innocent and has offered to meet with the plaintiffs 'many times', but have been rebuffed. Miller accuses Scott and Polgardy of 'looking for a quick score', and said that the settlement offer proposed is 'far more than $150K' and includes a demand for 20% of future game revenues. 3D Realms intends to fight the case and not settle, he says.

In October 2007, 3D Realms/Apogee filed for a declaratory judgment that Realms' 'Earth No More' did not infringe any intellectual property.

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Full post as published by Video Game Law Blog on February 21, 2008 (boomark / email).