So for those that are unaware, Harmony Gold (the creators of Robotech), sued FASA over BattleTech in the early ’90s. It was eventually settled out of court in 1996. This bit is relevant because it means the crucial determination over copyright that must be made by a court has yet to be made.
Harmony Gold has made a history of going after Mech games in the past, and this time is yet another in a decades long series of contentious legal claims.
The entire lawsuit can be found online in United States Courts Archive. In it Harmony Gold makes an accusation specifically against Jordan Weisman (owner of the BattleTech franchise), regarding his upcoming BattleTech game, claiming that the game’s website displays several mechs that infringe the former’s copyrights. In February 2017 Harebrained Schemes held a Kickstarter campaign, in which it raised $2,785,537.13 for the development of BattleTech.
Warner Bros. announced several months ago that they will be making a live-action Robotech film. In fact, they named a director (Andy Muschietti) last week. Not so coincidentally, Harmony Gold is now suing Catalyst Game Labs, Piranha Games, and Harebrained Schemes over BattleTech again. Pretty much for the same reason as the first time. They allege that many of the mech designs were outright stolen from Robotech.
Documents pertaining to the lawsuit can be found here. The second document can be found here.
We’ve also included comparison images from Harmony Gold’s filing to show the designs they allege as being stolen.
