It’s been pretty clear from the start that that is the plan. A lot of Stardock’s early PR efforts on this and other forums involved talking about how expensive the suit will be, how massive the damages will be, how they will certainly have to pay all Stardock’s legal costs, etc. Reinforced when the demands for 225k and all the IP came out. Just the demand of $225k is pretty ridiculous for the “confusion” created by their announcement without all the extra demands. A strategy being employed is clearly to make it seem too expensive to fight and to give up all the IP to avoid burning their personal savings on this. The lackluster performance of the funding campaign has turned that strategy up to 11.
Given that Stardock doesn’t seem to be able to actually produce any evidence that they purchased all the rights they claim to I would imagine they do not want this going all the way to court. From their filings can only state “Upon information and belief” rather than pointing to documentation of the fact in an exhibit in their filing.
“Upon information and belief, pursuant to the Asset Purchase Agreement,
Stardock owns all rights in and to the Atari Star Control Assets, which include but are not limited
to the Stardock Marks and any other trademarks originally adopted and used by Accolade and
Atari in the marketing and publishing of the Classic Star Control Games (including but not
limited to product names/titles, sub-names/titles, cover art, characters (e.g., aliens), alien race
names, characters names, spaceship names and spaceship designs), as well as the Star Control
Copyrights.”
Not, “according to the items stated in the purchase agreement in exhibit X” but just “Upon information and belief”.
In contrast, in P&Fs filing they directly support their stance with documentation.
"Effective April 1, 1998, Accolade and Reiche entered into Addendum No. 3 to the
1988 License Agreement, a copy of which is attached as Exhibit 4, to allow Accolade to develop
and publish new versions and sequels to the Classic Star Control Games using “all characters,
names, likenesses, characteristics, plot line, setting, source code, and any proprietary rights that
Reiche has in and to” the Classic Star Control Games, and any Derivative Works, in exchange for
the payment of an advance and royalties to Reiche.
- Paragraph 1.5 of Addendum No. 3 stated that:
“Reiche Intellectual Property” means the copyright and other intellectual property
rights (excluding trademarks) owned by Reiche, as set forth in the Agreement and
Addenda Nos. 1 and 2 to the Agreement, in and to (a) Star Control I for PC, Amiga
and Sega, (b) Star Control II for PC and 3DO, (c) any accompanying
documentation, and (d) the Star Control II cluebook. The Reiche Intellectual
Property shall include proprietary rights in and to any source code, names (of
starships and alien races), characters, plot lines, setting, terminology unique to the
Star Control products, and music in and to (a) – (d) above.
Paragraph 4.1 of Addendum No. 3 provided that the term of the agreement was
three years, with an option to renew for another three years only if Accolade published a new Star
Control game in the meantime, and that upon expiration or termination, “all rights granted and
obligations imposed hereunder shall terminate and rights to the Reiche Intellectual Property
granted hereunder shall revert to Reiche.”Paragraph 7 of Addendum No. 3 provided that if Accolade did not publish any new
versions or sequels to Star Control, then it would negotiate in good faith with Reiche a license to
any trademarks adopted and used to market the Classic Star Control Games. "
You don’t get to an "on information and belief in that section until:
“On information and belief, on or around April 1, 1999, Accolade was acquired by Infogrames.”
While it’s pretty obvious to everyone that that happened, it is stated that way since they are not offering direct proof for the assertion.