GMX Media responds to Tesseraction lawsuit

The two-year legal battle between GMX Media and Tesseraction Games now appears to be far from settled, with the publisher having contacted GamesIndustry.biz to refute the developer's recent claims of a court victory.

Tesseraction Games filed legal action against GMX Media in relation to a distribution agreement for PC title Enigma: Tides of War, accusing the publisher of a number of breaches of contract. A recent news statement posted on the company website claimed that a summary judgement awarded against GMX Media commercial director, Mike Bright, was the first victory in the two-year legal fight - a claim which GMX has since disputed.

Following the appearance of Tesseraction's claims in the press, GMX contacted us to offer a noticeably different version of events, refuting the developer's claims and suggesting that a counter lawsuit may be filed against them in order to protect its reputation.

GMX claims that Mike Bright, against whom the summary judgement was awarded in favour of Tesseraction Games, is a consultant for the publisher and not an employee of the firm, effectively disassociating itself from the latest judgement. It is also the publisher's assertion that the lawsuit against it was dismissed from court in October 2005.

The court case had been complicated from the outset by jurisdiction issues, the IP at the centre of the dispute having been created in Oregon, whereas GMX Media is a UK registered company. We contacted Tesseraction Games to clarify the situation, and company president Kelly Asay reiterated the developer's previous statements, remaining confident of a victory against GMX within a matter of months.

Asay maintains that only certain portions of the case were dismissed for venue, the judge deciding that the US courts were not an appropriate venue for prosecution of certain defendants. According to Asay, the two defendants in the case (Mike Bright and GMX Media) remain in effect, and a final settlement - which the developer expects to be awarded in its favour - is expected within the next 90 days. Upon settlement of the US case, Tesseraction intends to file the remaining portions of the lawsuit in the UK.

Whilst the final outcome of the litigation will not be known for several months, what is clear at this stage is that the long-standing dispute between Tesseraction Games and its former distribution partner is far from resolved. Moreover, the statements made by Tesseraction have opened up the potential for further legal disputes, with GMX suggesting that a lawsuit may be filed against the developer for damaging the company name and reputation with its claims.