The case in brief:
The client discovered that a game strikingly similar to its own project had been released on one of the largest gaming platforms: the same mechanics, the same concept. It turned out that the competing product came from a newly established company founded by the studio’s former employees. While working for the client, they had full access to the source code.
Situations like this are not uncommon in game development. Proving that a new product was built on someone else’s code, rather than merely “inspired” by it, is difficult. Outward similarity between games is not, in itself, an infringement.
What made it challenging
Similarity between games does not amount to infringement on its own: nobody owns game mechanics, and ideas and genres are not protected by copyright. To protect the client, we had to prove not just similarity but the copying of the software code itself. And this had to be done as quickly as possible, while the disputed game kept growing its audience.
The dispute was also cross-border: the rights holder is a Cypriot company, while the alleged infringer is registered in Belarus. The position therefore had to be built to work under Belarusian copyright law and to ensure that any potential court judgment would be enforceable.
What REVERA did
Confirmed the client’s rights: the software code was created by the former employees in the course of their job duties, so the exclusive rights to it belong entirely to the company. In addition, their contracts contained confidentiality obligations that remained in force after they left.
Found the “digital fingerprint.” REVERA arranged an independent technical examination of the code by a licensed forensic expert organization. The experts analyzed the activity history in the client’s repository: the former employees had the technical ability to download the full source code, and their activity stopped shortly before the competing product appeared. Another significant piece of evidence was internal identifiers tied to the client’s own infrastructure. Such elements do not appear automatically and are not part of standard libraries or templates.
Handled the pre-trial stage. Based on the evidence gathered, the team prepared a detailed pre-trial claim letter. It substantiated the infringement of exclusive rights and set out the possible consequences for the infringer, ranging from statutory compensation to administrative and criminal liability. Belarusian law allows a rights holder to claim compensation instead of damages without having to prove the amount of loss. This significantly strengthened the client’s position.
Conducted negotiations. REVERA led the negotiations while keeping the focus on the client’s main goal: stopping the infringement and securing reliable guarantees for the future.
Result
The dispute was resolved out of the court: the parties entered into a settlement agreement that fully satisfies the client’s interests. The client retained control over its intellectual property and avoided spending time and resources on years of litigation.
Lessons from this case
This case shows that IP protection in game development starts long before any dispute arises. The client was able to defend its rights largely because the studio had properly documented its relationship with the team in advance, securing both the transfer of rights to the code and confidentiality obligations.
Studios that want to be prepared for situations like this should focus on three things:
- check how employment and contractor agreements provide for the transfer of rights to code, art and game mechanics;
- make sure confidentiality obligations survive the end of the working relationship;
- set up role-based access to repositories and keep activity logs. In a dispute, they can become decisive evidence.
