Judge overturns ruling in John Madden Football designer's case
Despite winning his case against Electronic Arts back in July, John Madden Football designer Robin Antonick will not see his promised $11 million. The San Francisco Chronicles reports US district judge Charles Breyer has overturned that ruling.
Breyer said there was no clear evidence that Antonick's work had been copied by EA without his permission. Breyer added that jurors in the original ruling weren't shown Antonick's game alongside EA's subsequent efforts, as the law requires in copyright infringement disputes, and therefore were unable to make a proper evaluation. Antonick's lawyer Robert Carey said they plan to appeal Breyer's new ruling, of course, and added that evidence showed EA "used his source code without permission."
Antonick first filed suit against EA back in 2011. The original John Madden Football launched in 1988 on the C64, Apple 2 and on MS-DOS. The modern incarnation of the series is one of EA's most successful franchises. Antonick is currently working on a basketball game called Grudge Match.
