By Michael Barr
Note: This article offers practical guidance for attorneys engaging technical experts. It is general commentary, not legal advice. Consult counsel about any specific matter.
A video game and graphics expert witness works in a field where the disputed thing is often not the code at all. It is the feel of a game, the look of a rendering, the structure beneath the artwork, or the engine somebody else licensed. The criteria below reflect how unusually mixed these cases are.
They can separate expression from function
Game copyright cases turn on this and nothing else. Rules are not protectable. A particular sequence of animations, a specific level layout, or the concrete arrangement of a user interface may be. Between them sits a large contested middle where the analysis has to be careful and explicit.
An expert who reports that two games are similar, without filtering out what the genre requires, what the hardware constrains, and what the engine supplied, has produced a number the other side will take apart.
They know what the engine contributed
Most games are built on a licensed engine and a stack of middleware for physics, audio, animation, and networking. Similarity that originates in Unreal, Unity, or a shared middleware library is not evidence of copying between two studios.
Establishing what the engine provided, before comparing anything, is the first real task in these matters. An expert who cannot navigate an engine's own source and asset pipeline will attribute the engine's work to the defendant.
They can read assets, not only code
The evidence includes shaders, meshes, textures, animation data, level files, audio banks, and the tooling that produced them. Much of what a player perceives lives there rather than in the C++ that ships. An expert whose method only reaches source code will examine the smaller half of the product.
They understand build and platform provenance
Console submission records, storefront build history, patch manifests, and version control tell you what shipped when. In a case about who did something first, or about what a specific version contained, that record is frequently more probative than the current tree.
They can quantify performance and rendering claims
Patent matters here often recite rendering, compression, streaming, or input-latency behavior. Those are measurable on a real device, and an expert who can instrument a build and produce numbers holds a stronger position than one who reasons from documentation.
They translate a medium jurors may not use
Some jurors play games and some have never held a controller. The witness has to build the model for both without patronising either, and frequently has to explain that what looks like a picture is a computed result of thousands of decisions per frame.
They keep the damages question technical
On a title with dozens of systems, the accused feature is one part of a large product, and its share of value is a technical question before it becomes an economic one.
A case in this field
Barr Group provided the source code comparison for Robin Antonick, the original programmer of John Madden Football, in his software copyright case against Electronic Arts. The jury found in Antonick's favor at trial. The full case study sets out the comparison work, which is a useful illustration of the expression and function line in a real courtroom rather than in the abstract.
Expert profiles in this field
Anonymized profiles. Names follow a conflicts check.
- Video game computer graphics
- Video game software and console development
- Virtual reality worlds and gaming
- Computer music and multimedia
- Graphical user interface and usability
- Electronic casino games
How we help
We match the expert to what the case actually contests, which in this field is often graphics, gameplay systems, audio, or platform behavior rather than "games" generally. Our source code review practice covers engine and title code under protective order, and our software copyright experience covers the comparison discipline these cases need.
The search is free and confidential for the attorney. Our fee is built into the expert's rate, so we are paid only if you retain. Tell us about your case.