On Wednesday, April 15, 2009, as requested by Scratch DJ Game LLC, the Court ordered 7 Studios, which was recently acquired by Activision, to turn over to Scratch DJ Game LLC within five days all source code related to Scratch – The Ultimate DJ game, including 7 Studio’s pre-existing developer software tools and technology that went into developing the game. Despite arguments from Activision’s counsel, the Court clearly concluded that the source code was the property of Scratch DJ Game LLC. The Court also granted an injunction preventing 7 Studios from disclosing or discussing the game code or Scratch trade secrets with Activision or any other third party. This decision by the Court is a setback for Activision which only acquired 7 Studios after Genius rejected Activision’s offers to buy the Scratch game. Activision is now “walled off” by the Court’s order from discussing Scratch or its game code or confidential information with its own subsidiary – which had previously worked on Scratch for 18 months as a contract work-for-hire developer.
In addition to winning the requested injunctive relief, Scratch DJ Game LLC will aggressively pursue its court case against Activision, 7 Studios and Peterson for damages resulting from their actions to delay and take over the Scratch game. Scratch DJ Game LLC contends it will prove that, only after venture partner Genius rejected multi-million dollar offers from Activision for Scratch – The Ultimate DJ Game, Activision then used information it obtained under a non-disclosure agreement with Genius to buy financially struggling contract developer 7 Studios in order to delay and control completion and release of Scratch, which is to compete with the DJ Hero game Activision has announced it has under development. Scratch DJ Game LLC believes Activision’s actions with regard to Scratch were clearly an attempt to prevent the game from getting to market ahead of its own prospective game, DJ Hero, or to exact a lower price for the Scratch game after it took control of the contract developer working for its competitor.