Epic Games' Motion to Dismiss Silicon Knights Suit Denied

Check It
Top 25 Things You Missed at E3The biggest moments from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft of the year handpicked by your favorite editors!
Top 25 Underrated Nintendo GamesWe trade in Mario and Link for some male cheerleaders, snowboarders and a big yellow giant.
Listen Now: Video Game MusicHear new tracks from all of your favorite games!

Epic Games had been looking to get Silicon Knights' lawsuit completely thrown out, but the court has decided to deny the request and the litigation will continue.

by James Brightman on Wednesday, October 31, 2007

GameDaily BIZ today received an update on the lawsuit between Epic Games and Silicon Knights (SK). Back in August, SK, developer of the upcoming Too Human trilogy for Xbox 360 sued Epic Games, alleging that Epic kept a usable version of the Unreal Engine to itself for Gears of War development and provided SK with the kit far too late. SK believes that Epic harmed development of Too Human, as well as other Epic licensees.

Following the filing of the suit, Epic filed a counterclaim and a motion to dismiss SK's suit altogether. The counterclaim said that SK "decided to misappropriate Epic's licensed technology" and that their lawsuit "lacks factual or legal merit."

Today both SK and Epic Games confirmed to us that Epic's motion to dismiss the suit has been denied. "[The Judge] put the discovery process in motion, which will allow the lawsuits to move forward. Epic had asked for the entire case to be dismissed. Judge Dever denied this request, which is not unusual," Epic VP Mark Rein said. "Often these requests are denied. It is important to note that this was not a decision on the merits of Silicon Knights' claims. We are confident that the evidence will show Silicon Knights breached its license with Epic Games and violated our copyrights and trade secrets."

GameDaily BIZ briefly spoke with SK's attorney on the case, Christopher T. Holland, an Equity Partner at Krieg, Keller, Sloan, Reilley & Roman, LLP. Holland confirmed to us that all of SK's initial claims will not be thrown out and "remain in play for the trial."

An exact date for the trial has yet to be set. "We're a long way from a verdict in this case, but certainly as a plaintiff we're pleased that the court has recognized the merit in our claims and we're happy that we can now proceed as planned with all the claims we brought for discovery and trial," Holland said.

Much of the industry is closely following this case because of the large number of licensees that use Unreal Engine 3.0 for their games. We'll be sure to keep you updated on any new developments.