Judge reverses huge jury award over Madden video games

"John Madden Football," which first appeared in 1988, was a departure from other computer games of that period that depicted a handful of players making robotic movements. Robin Antonick, a programmer who had played college football, was given credit and royalties for the game's first edition. less "John Madden Football," which first appeared in 1988, was a departure from other computer games of that period that depicted a handful of players making robotic movements. Robin Antonick, a programmer who ... more Photo: EA Sports Photo: EA Sports Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Judge reverses huge jury award over Madden video games 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

A federal judge overturned a jury's multimillion-dollar damage award to the programmer of the original "John Madden Football" video game on Wednesday, saying there was no evidence that his work was copied for seven years, without credit, by the marketer of later versions of the hugely successful game.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco spared Electronic Arts Inc. from nearly $4 million in damages, plus interest that could have exceeded $7 million. The jury verdict also could have led to larger damages against the company for later versions of the game, which reaped billions of dollars in revenues, if future juries found that those, too, had been lifted from the work of programmer Robin Antonick.

"Madden Football," which first appeared in 1988, was a departure from other computer games of that period that depicted a handful of players making robotic movements. The new game, first conceived in a parking-lot conversation between Madden and the founder of Electronic Arts, showed all 22 players carrying out NFL plays.

Antonick, a programmer who had played college football, was given credit and royalties for the game's first edition. But Electronic Arts brought in new programming teams in 1990 and said they started from scratch, without using Antonick's source code.

Last July, a federal court jury agreed with Antonick that the Madden games from 1990 through 1996 were so similar in plays and formations that they must have been based on the programmer's original source code.

But Breyer, who presided over the trial, ruled Wednesday that the jurors had no basis for that conclusion because they were never shown the games side by side in order to make their own evaluation, as the law requires for a verdict of copyright infringement.

Instead, the judge said, jurors heard from Antonick's expert witness, who said the games used the same plays and formations and the same system of player ratings, and that while the later versions had added some features, they were "essentially the same" and used the same programming.

"Without the opportunity to view each of the versions (of the later games), the jury had no basis for evaluating whether the changes (the expert) addressed altered each subsequent game," Breyer said.

As a consequence, he said, there was "no evidence from which a reasonable juror could conclude that (the games) are virtually identical when compared as a whole." Therefore, Breyer said, Antonick's suit must be dismissed.

Antonick will appeal the ruling, his lawyers said. "The evidence showed they used his source code without permission," said attorney Robert Carey.

But lawyers for Electronic Arts said Breyer properly found that "there is no evidence that any of the (later) games are virtually identical to the ... game that Robin Antonick programmed."