Interplay Wins over TopWare in “Battle vs. Chess” Affair

After surrendering the Fallout license to Bethesda Softworks, a lot of question marks hang above Interplay’s ability to successfully litigate a case. Looks like the company got a break in a fight with a smaller player…

As we all probably know, Interplay Entertainment owns the Battle Chess franchise. Recently, Topware Interactive came out with the game called “Battle vs. Chess”. Given that the last version of Battle Chess game came out in 1994, it is no surprise that in 2010, Topware wanted to capture the bit of a famous name and came out with “Battle vs. Chess”. Interplay sued and won an injunction for copyright infringement, preventing the game from being released to the market.

Given that this year, Interplay is finally coming out with the new Battle Chess for PC and iOS. The company contracted Subdued Software to develop the game with the original release in 2011, but the launch date slipped into 2012 with all the court activity in regards to Bethesda Softworks case.

Last week, the District Court of California came into session and given that after two years of litigation, TopWare Interactive discharged their lawyer, resulting in Interplay winning the case by default. TopWare has time until April 24th to settle the case, or pay the damages. From the court documents, we have to ask if TopWare will be asked to submit the code of the infringed title in case the company decides to launch the game under a different name and make sure no copyright is infringed.

Original Author: Theo Valich

This news article is part of our extensive Archive on tech news that have been happening in the past 10 years. For up to date stuff we would recommend a visit to our IT News section on the frontpage. Additionally, we take great pride in our Home Office section, as well as our VPN Reviews, so be sure to check them out as well.