{"id":29860,"date":"2011-12-26T13:11:39","date_gmt":"2011-12-26T11:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=29860"},"modified":"2012-01-03T10:00:53","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T08:00:53","slug":"activision-vs-ea-lawsuit-heads-to-jury-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/29860-activision-vs-ea-lawsuit-heads-to-jury-trial","title":{"rendered":"Activision vs EA lawsuit heads to jury trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Motions Filed for Summary Judgment by <a title=\"Company Information\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/11851-Electronic-Arts\">Electronic Arts<\/a>, Former Employees West and Zampella Denied<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Company Information\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/11841-Activision-Blizzard\">Activision<\/a> Publishing has announced that the Los Angeles Superior Court has denied a motion brought by Electronic Arts (EA) for summary judgment, thereby permitting Activision to proceed to trial on its $400 million contract-interference suit against EA.<\/p>\n<p>At a hearing held on 21 December 2011, Judge Elihu Berle denied EA&#8217;s motion, finding that the evidence presented by Activision supplied a basis for a jury to potentially conclude both that EA had intentionally interfered with Activision&#8217;s employment agreements with former <a title=\"Game Information\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/21061-Call-of-Duty\">Call of Duty<\/a> game developers, Jason West and Vince Zampella, and that EA had aided and abetted West and Zampella&#8217;s breach of fiduciary duties to Activision. A related summary judgment motion put forth by West and Zampella was also denied.<\/p>\n<p>In the suit Activision alleges that West and Zampella breached their contracts and duty of loyalty to Activision by conduct that was insubordinate and otherwise improper and that West and Zampella&#8217;s misconduct was caused, at least in part, by EA&#8217;s unlawful tampering.<\/p>\n<p>A jury trial in the case is scheduled to begin on 7 May 2012.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Related Articles<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Infinity Ward vs. Activision lawsuit escalates\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/5849-infinity-ward-vs-activision-lawsuit-escalates.html\">Infinity Ward vs. Activision lawsuit escalates<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Activision CEO talks on Infinity Ward exodus, counts his pennies\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/5912-activision-ceo-talks-on-infinity-ward-exodus-counts-his-pennies.html\"><strong>Activision CEO talks on Infinity Ward exodus, counts his pennies<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Respawn takes on 16th ex-Infinity Ward Employee\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/5871-respawn-takes-on-16th-ex-infinity-ward-employee.html\"><strong>Respawn takes on 16th ex-Infinity Ward Employee<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Activision names EA as defendant in Infinity Ward lawsuit\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/9115-activision-names-ea-as-defendant-in-infinity-ward-lawsuit.html\"><strong>Activision names EA as defendant in Infinity Ward lawsuit<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Infinity Ward finally restructured\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/8657-infinity-ward-finally-restructured.html\"><strong>Infinity Ward finally restructured<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Activision and EA will have their day in court\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/12469-activision-and-ea-will-have-their-day-in-court.html\"><strong>Activision and EA will have their day in court<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Activision vs EA, West, Zampella lawsuit moves ahead\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/10755-activision-vs-ea-west-zampella-lawsuit-moves-ahead.html\"><strong>Activision vs EA, West, Zampella lawsuit moves ahead<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Activision claims Infinity Ward held back MW2 Stimulus Pack to help EA out\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/9551-activision-claims-infinity-ward-held-back-mw2-stimulus-pack-to-help-ea-out.html\"><strong>Activision claims Infinity Ward held back MW2 Stimulus Pack to help EA out<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Pachter: Zampella and West have no legal claim to Modern Warfare brand\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/11133-pachter-zampella-and-west-have-no-legal-claim-to-modern-warfare-brand.html\"><strong>Pachter: Zampella and West have no legal claim to Modern Warfare brand<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Infinity Ward founders\u2019 new studio Respawn Entertainment website launched\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/12683-infinity-ward-founders-new-studio-respawn-entertainment-website-launched.html\"><strong>Infinity Ward founders\u2019 new studio Respawn Entertainment website launched<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The California Superior Court finds Activision Publishing may proceed with a jury trial in suit against Electronic Arts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":29861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[587,813,21,231,1720,1721,1719],"class_list":["post-29860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-activision","tag-electronic-arts","tag-headline","tag-infinity-ward","tag-jason-west","tag-respawn-entertainment","tag-vince-zampella"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/157"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29862,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29860\/revisions\/29862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}