S3D Interactive Inc. (appellant) v Oovee Ltd (respondent)
Tuesday 6 December 2022
Appeal against the Order of Butcher J (14/11/22) that dismissed a claim. The dispute relates to rights and obligations arising out of the successful development of a video game called ‘Spintires’ and of modifications thereof.
S3D contends that ‘Spintires’ was developed by a Mr Pavel Zagrebelnyy in conjunction with Oovee pursuant to the terms of two consultancy agreements, under the second of which (‘the Second Consultancy Agreement’) Oovee was obliged to pay Mr Zagrebelnyy royalties. S3D says that the benefit of the Second Consultancy Agreement was assigned to it by an assignment dated 21 December 2018. ‘Spintires’ had ultimately been released in June 2014.
S3D contended that ‘Spintires’ had been developed while Mr Zagrebelnyy was working for S3D. S3D contended that Mr Zagrebelnyy had incorporated some of its assets into ‘Spintires’, and asserted claims against Oovee, inter alia for infringement of intellectual property rights. The parties compromised claims that they had against each other in relation to ‘Spintires’ by a License Agreement dated 2 August 2016 (‘the License Agreement’). Under the License Agreement Oovee granted S3D a right to develop ‘enhancements’ to ‘Spintires’ in return for which S3D was required to pay Oovee a royalty. S3D developed an ‘enhancement’ of ‘Spintires’ called ‘Mudrunner’, and, Oovee contends, other downloadable content related to ‘Mudrunner’, in respect of which Oovee alleges that S3D owes it royalties.