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<i><b>Online Extra</i></b>Jury Sides Against EA in Suit over Madden Football

BY Scott Graham
July 24, 2013

A San Francisco federal jury found on July 23 that early versions of Electronic Arts' Madden NFL Football were derivative works of a game created by Antonick. The verdict ' the second favoring Antonick in a three-phase trial ' will be worth between $3.5 million and $11.6 million in unpaid royalties, pending a decision on prejudgment interest, according to one of Antonick's attorneys.

More important, his attorneys say, is the verdict puts Antonick in a strong position to prove that EA's later versions of the game, worth many billions of dollars, made similar unauthorized use of Antonick's work. 'Assuming that same play data is in there ' and there's no reason not to ' then liability is determined, or easy to show,' said Leonard Aragon, a partner at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro.

That phase of the trial is still years away, though. Hagens Berman partner Robert Carey, Antonick's lead lawyer, said he hopes EA will 'listen to the jury here and maybe be a little more reasonable in their approach to the case.'

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