Assassin's Creed Lawsuit Voluntarily Dismissed

Last month American author John Beiswenger sued Ubisoft with claims that the company flat-out stole ideas from his novel, Link, and repurposed them for the Assassin’s Creed series. Today we have confirmation that Beiswenger is backing off. For now.

In Link, a machine known as the Link device is used to witness points of history through the eyes of those that experienced it. Link’s plot also involves assassinations, religious themes, and historical ancestors. These similarities didn’t sit well with the author, but a solution has been found.

Gametrailers was also caught up in the legal mess for publishing Assassin’s Creed trailers, and they decided to settle with Beiswenger out of court. In the aftermath of the settlement, Beiswenger decided to halt his pursuit of damages from Ubisoft. We contacted Beiswenger’s lawyer, Kelly Clements Keller of the Keller Law Firm, who confirmed, “The claims against Gametrailers have been settled and the claims against Ubisoft have been dismissed, without prejudice.”

While he's no longer pursuing his claims against Ubisoft, Beiswenger still believes his copyrighted work was infringed upon by Ubisoft and is free to press further charges in the future. In a press release, Keller made the following statement:

“My client’s decision to exercise his right to voluntarily dismiss the action, without prejudice, in no way diminishes his stalwart conviction in the merit of his claims against Ubisoft. He is unwavering in his belief that many key components of the Assassin’s Creed video game franchise infringe on many key components of his novel, Link. We believe Ubisoft has engaged in egregious acts of copyright infringement and, should he choose to seek redress through the courts in the future, we remain confident that a trier of fact would agree.”

Has anybody read Link? If you have, sound off in the comments below with your thoughts on any similarities.

[Source: Gamesta]