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Reuters
Electronic Arts settles suit over game secrets
Wednesday April 9, 2:00 am ET

LOS ANGELES, April 9 (Reuters) - Video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc. (NasdaqNM:ERTS) on Wednesday said it had settled a lawsuit it filed against former employees who left to start their own game company but were later found to have internal documents and code from Electronic Arts.

The settlement, entered into federal court in Los Angeles earlier this month, includes an agreement by the 23 individual defendants and their company, Spark Entertainment, to return proprietary materials to Electronic Arts, or EA, without admitting any impropriety or illegal behavior.

In an internal memo to EA employees Tuesday, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, the company's general counsel, Ruth Kennedy, said the defendants admitted to having materials from the company's highly successful "Medal of Honor" franchise, which they worked on until last year.

"EA also received a substantial settlement payment to cover our legal costs and damages," Kennedy said in the memo. "The amount of the settlement is confidential."

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