Robin Antonick programmed the first Madden video game that was released in 1988 for MS-DOS, Commodore, and Apple II platforms. Antonick signed a contract with EA that would pay him royalties for any Madden derivative that used code similar to his original game. EA did not pay up, so Antonick took the giant publisher to court, and won.
After three days of deliberation, a jury in the US District Court in the Northern District of California found that EA had breached this contract, and owes Antonick $11 million. They decided that EA Madden games released between 1990-1996 were similar enough to Antonick’s original work, and that EA must pay up.
That is the first phase of the trial. The second phase, which will happen in the near future, will determine if any of the games from 1997 to the present share have any of Antonick’s work. If so, Antonick would receive even more money from EA.
[Source]
