Perception announced a few days ago that it has begun legal proceedings in a Sydney, Australia court against Austrian publisher JoWooD, seeking compensation for damages in excess of EUR 8,000,000 ($11,878,759) it received during 2005’s very public breakdown in relations between the two companies over the mis-managed development of Stargate SG1. Though the license for the Stargate title has defaulted and reverted back to its original owners, both companies are still going at it apparently, with no end in sight. Interesting is that this time around the proceedings are taking place in Australia, it doesn’t look good for JoWooD, with Perception holding the home-field advantage. Can JoWooD survive losing this suit? My money is on no.

Press release after the jump..

Read more of ”Perception sues JoWooD over Stargate fiasco, claims damages in excess of 8 Million Euro“

Amid more threats of NASDAQ de-listing, Take Two, the publisher behind Rockstar Games and the Grand Theft Auto line of games, has disclosed their discovery that founder and former CEO Ryan Brant backdated multiple stock options over a six year period while head of the gaming giant. TTWO is no stranger to financial difficulties of course, but, this could mean even more problems for a company who was slowly rebounding from the destruction the infamous Hot Coffee incident reaped. Brant served as chairmen of Take Two up until 2004, and there appears to be proof of backdated options from 1997 through 2003. Take Two has not disclosed any restatements or accounting adjustments, but, we’d expect some news very shortly.

Read more: Take Two discloses CEO backdating

During the third and fourth quarters of 2005, Austrian games developer / publisher, JoWooD, was having another in a long line of rough periods. A surprise and very public split over the Stargate license with developer Perception resulted in a petition to have JoWooD declared bankrupt (which was rejected) and an eventually successful restructuring plan carrying over from 2004 was dampening their Q3 financials, resulting in the reduction in staff and closure of several internal development studios, including JoWooD Vienna (Neighbors from Hell).

Around this time, Q3/Q4 2005, it appears JoWooD entered into negotiations with Silverstar Holdings, a publicly-traded holdings firm who focuses on acquiring controlling interest in strategic companies within the electronic entertainment industry (counting Empire Interactive and Strategy First among their brands). Considering Silverstar’s stated corporate strategy, a full or partial acquisition of JoWooD appeared to be in the cards, only, something seems to have soured along the way, as JoWooD announced a European co-publishing agreement for Gothic III and other titles with Koch Media, a round of successful debt restructuring and a sudden resurgence in stock price. JoWooD seemed to be out of the woods yet again, seemingly thanks to the help of Koch Media, though details of the agreement(s) between them are unknown at this time.

Fast forward to January 2006, where Silverstar Holdings announced via SEC filings that it has filed suit against JoWooD Software Productions AG for breach of contract and seeks restitution for damages in the amount of $850,000 for expenses incurred in connection with the unsuccessful acquisition of JoWooD shares during their discussions the previous year. JoWooD was unsuccessful in having the case dismissed and the hearing appears to have been delayed until this week according to Silverstar Holding’s CEO Clive Kabatznik who states, “We had a hearing in Vienna on Tuesday and have a final hearing scheduled for mid March. We will see what the Austrian legal system will decide.”

More to follow as information becomes available.

Related: JoWooD | Silverstar Holdings | Koch Media

Ex-Gizmondo con-man Bo Stefan Eriksson’s embezzlement trial has ended in a mistrial a few days ago in Los Angeles county. The jury was hung, voting 10 to 2 for conviction, which leads me to question, who were the 2 who could possibly acquit a member of the Swedish mafia who admittedly brought two Ferrari’s to the U.S. after he stopped paying for both after the breakup of his scam? The LA DA’s office have already stated they will re-try and Eriksson is still being held in LA County jail on immigration orders from the federal government. For those unfamiliar with the story of the Gizmondo console and how big of a monster fraud it was, checkout Wired Magazine’s brilliant and in-depth look into the Gizmondo scam and it’s subsequent breakup.

Read more: Eriksson process ends in mistrial

Wow. My distaste for Sony has hit an all-time high with the announcement that Lik-Sang, the best one stop nerd shop for all things games importing, are shutting their doors due to Sony’s multiple lawsuits “protecting” European consumers from the dangers of importing. My poor Wii pre-order, why Sony, WHY!!!???!?!

Official statement from Lik-Sang below..

Hong Kong, October 24th of 2006 - Lik-Sang.com, the popular gaming retailer from Hong Kong, has today announced that it is forced to close down due to multiple legal actions brought against it by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Sony claimed that Lik-Sang infringed its trade marks, copyright and registered design rights by selling Sony PSP consoles from Asia to European customers, and have recently obtained a judgment in the High Court of London (England) rendering Lik-Sang’s sales of PSP consoles unlawful.

As of today, Lik-Sang.com will not be in the position to accept any new orders and will cancel and refund all existing orders that have already been placed. Furthermore, Lik-Sang is working closely with banks and PayPal to refund any store credits held by the company, and the customer support department is taking care of any open transactions such as pending RMAs or repairs and shipping related matters. The staff of Lik-Sang will make sure that nobody will get hurt in the crossfire of this ordeal.

A Sony spokesperson declined to comment directly on the lawsuit against Lik-Sang, but recently went on to tell Gamesindustry.biz that “ultimately, we’re trying to protect consumers from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards, due to voltage supply differences et cetera; is not - in PS3’s case - backwards compatible with either PS1 or PS2 software; will not play European Blu-Ray movies or DVDs; and will not be covered by warranty”.

Lik Sang strongly disagrees with Sony’s opinion that their customers need this kind of protection and pointed out that PSP consoles shipped from Lik-Sang contained genuine Sony 100V-240V AC Adapters that carry CE and other safety marks and are compatible world wide. All PSP consoles were in conformity with all EU and UK consumer safety regulations.

Furthermore, Sony have failed to disclose to the London High Court that not only the world wide gaming community in more than 100 countries relied on Lik-Sang for their gaming needs, but also Sony Europe’s very own top directors repeatedly got their Sony PSP hard or software imports in nicely packed Lik-Sang parcels with free Lik-Sang Mugs or Lik-Sang Badge Holders, starting just two days after Japan’s official release, as early as 14th of December 2004 (more than nine months earlier than the legal action). The list of PSP related Sony Europe orders reads like the who’s who of the videogames industry, and includes Ray Maguire (Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Alan Duncan (UK Marketing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Chris Sorrell (Creative Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Rob Parkin (Development Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited), just to name a few.

“Today is Sony Europe victory about PSP, tomorrow is Sony Europe’s ongoing pressure about PlayStation 3. With this precedent set, next week could already be the stage for complaints from Sony America about the same thing, or from other console manufacturers about other consoles to other regions, or even from any publisher about any specific software title to any country they don’t see fit. It’s the beginning of the end… of the World as we know it”, stated Pascal Clarysse, formerly known as the Marketing Manager of Lik-Sang.com.

“Blame it on Sony. That’s the latest dark spot in their shameful track record as gaming industry leader. The Empire finally ‘won’, few dominating retailers from the UK probably will rejoice the news, but everybody else in the gaming world lost something today.”

Ultima Online and World of Warcraft mega-guild The Syndicate® has taken an epic step recently, by trademarking their guild name as well as it’s logos and identity, protecting their brand from being deluded by copycats and people wishing to make a name for themselves by protraying that they are associated with The Syndicate®. Though the guild is involved with creating guides, contributing to game development books, and cosulting, their primary operations are virtual, taking place in the various game worlds which the guild supports.

As one of the oldest, largest and most powerful guilds in all of online gaming, The Syndicate® has developed a strong reputation over the years. We seek to protect that reputation from misuse of our guild name and have taken the step of Trademarking our guild name “The Syndicate®” along with our logo and our motto.

There are a number of cases where guild’s have taken our guild name knowingly and perhaps unknowingly and used it. That has resulted in a negative impact to our reputation as a result of that misuse of our name. Thus the name was trademarked and use of that name is restricted.

Read more: In-game guild trademarks their name and identity (via the excellent Davis games law blog)