Top Plaintiffs' Verdicts by Impact: Antonick v. Electronic Arts Inc.

Attorneys for Web developer Robin Antonick convinced a jury that Electronic Arts Inc. used his source code in all of its popular John Madden football video games without compensating him and that it was not too late to bring his claims, even though the alleged violation dated back over 20 years.

A San Francisco federal jury awarded Antonick $3.6 million, compensating him for each of the annual editions of the game up to 1996. His attorneys, led by Robert B. Carey of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, planned to pursue more damages over subsequent editions of the games.

But Antonick and his attorneys were dealt a post-game blow in January, when U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer reversed the verdict and entered a judgment in favor of Electronic Arts. Carey plans to appeal, but he is deciding if they first need to litigate alleged infringement of the later Madden games.

Antonick spent years designing the first computer game using Madden's name for Electronic Arts. He left the company, and EA began making the video game on a console rather than a computer. It was years before Antonick recognized EA might have used his code in the new games and never paid him royalties.

In the trial's first phase, defense attorneys argued Antonick didn't bring his case within the statute of limitations, which would have ended it. But Carey and his team successfully convinced the jury he did not learn about the possible breach until later.

The second phase of the trial dealt with demonstrating the similarities of the video games to the one Antonick developed. Antonick v. Electronic Arts Inc., 11-1543 (N.D. Cal., filed March 30, 2011). Carey said it was difficult to prove because the programming languages were different.

"It would be as if you took War and Peace in French and showed that it was copied off of the original," he said. "That can be done. It all comes down to syntax and structure and there were a couple little strings that I would call the smoking gun."

- HADLEY ROBINSON

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