Silicon Knights Digs for Epic Contract Information

Silicon Knights and Epic Games have been embroiled in a lawsuit over the Unreal Engine 3 for some time now. According to recent reports, Silicon Knights has filed subpoenas on several Unreal Engine 3 licensees in order to see the terms of their confidential licensing contracts with Epic. Silicon Knights presumably hopes that the contracts will provide useful evidence in the dispute. Epic, on the other hand, would no doubt prefer not to have the details of its various licences made public -- it could rock the boat with its current licensees, and could make negotiations with future licensees more difficult.

If the contracts are disclosed, it's conceivable that they could be part of a sealed court file so that they do not become part of the public record -- that way they could be used in the Silicon Knights litigation, but not be revealed to the gaming industry at large.

Coverage at GameDaily.com.