Valve and Activision Square Off in a Lawsuit
By Ron on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 3:04 PM PST In Activision, Game Related Laws, Games Industry, Valve
Looks like we’re having a celebrity deathmatch in U.S. District Court in Seattle. This Tuesday, Valve filed suit against Activision Blizzard.
Apparently the complaint stems from a 2002 dispute over Sierra licensing Valve games without the consent of Valve. As we all know, Sierra was merged with Activision last year. Earlier this month, on April 6th, an arbitrator awarded Valve $2,391,932.
Valve said this was less compensation than they were seeking, but they agreed to be bound by the arbitration process.
As is usually the case, one of the parties wasn’t pleased. In this case, Activision challenged the award, saying that Valve was overpaid by $424,136 in the past. Valve responded saying that that Activision didn’t properly raise the issue in front of the arbitrator.
Activision reportedly cut Valve a check for $1,967,796 last week. That amount is the total awarded by the arbitrator less the disputed $424,136. Apparently, Activision has said that it would not pay the rest, and that if Valve went to court, Activision would countersue. Valve apparently ignored this warning, and has filed a suit in US District Court in Seattle.
Download the PDF of the complaint.
Thanks, GamePolitics
Fun times. I keep hearing Michael Buffer in my head yelling “Lets Get Ready to Rumble!” I am positive however that the courtroom proceedings will at least be more entertaining than Ready 2 Rumble Revolution.