United States based developer Southpeak Games (OTC:SOPK) was hit with another blow in UK High Court recently, losing a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against them by German distributor CDV Software Entertainment.
The Hon. Mrs. Justice Elizabeth Gloster ruled in November of 2009 that Southpeak had been guilty of breach of contract in when they failed to get four out of seven games released in time for Christmas of 2008: Dementium, Insecticide, Mushroom Men and Velvet Assassin. In her new ruling, Mrs. Justice Gloster ruled that Southpeak was also guilty of infringing on CDV’s copyright, though they were not guilty of actually inciting the breach of contract (in layman’s terms: they breached the contract, but didn’t mean it). Southpeak and it’s fellow defendents, Gamecock Media Group and Gone Off Deep LLC, will also be responsible for CDV’s legal costs.
Last week, Southpeak reported a net loss of $2.6m for it’s second financial quarter ending December 31st, 2009. Considering their judgement in the prior case was in the neighbourhood of $3.1m, this latest ruling will count as yet another blow for the company currently developing Two Worlds 2.
Sources: Gamerlaw Blog, via gamesindustry.biz
Leave a Reply