The director of the Blitz Team denies signing a non-competition agreement and receiving $10 million from Wargaming

Conflict between Wargaming and the studio Blitz Team founded by its former employees is heating up. Wargaming claims that it paid the future founders of the Blitz Team, when they were still employees of the “tank” company, more than $ 10 million. Moreover, it is alleged that a non-competition agreement was concluded. The director of the Blitz Team denies both the first and the second.

Yesterday, March 26, Wargaming sent out a press release. According to him, she filed a lawsuit against Blitz Team in the Federal District Court of Los Angeles. The lawsuit accuses the studio of misuse of trademarks and unfair competition.

In addition, the press release reports that:

“Before leaving Wargaming, the employees who later created the company Blitz Team, the development team World of Tanks Blitz was headed by the persons indicated in the statement of claim (“WOTB Management”), who received a decent reward for their work. In addition to their salaries, they received additional payments from the profits of World of Tanks Blitz totaling more than $10 million. As part of the agreements with Wargaming, they pledged not to compete with their former employer and not to poach his employees for a certain time after leaving.”
In the comments for App2Top.ru Kirill Polyakov, director of the Blitz Team, said that he learned about this lawsuit from the press.

He also noted that the contract was not concluded, the founders did not receive money:

“The first. None of the employees or founders of the Blitz Team has a non-competition or non-exchange agreement with Wargaming (neither local nor Cypriot). Free competition is the basis for the development of the industry. In order not to unreasonably restrict competition, Decree No. 8 states that the non-competition agreement concluded by HTP residents (We are talking about the Belarusian Hi-Tech Park, of which Wargaming has been a resident since 2008. — Ed.), can only be paid: the employer must pay the employee money — compensation for non-competition after dismissal (including refusal to work in competing projects). Any restrictions without compensation are negligible. This is simply a violation of the employee’s right to work.Second.

None of the employees or founders of the Blitz Team, including me, received from Wargaming neither the $10 million indicated in the WG press release, nor any other similar compensation.”
Since December 2019, Wargaming has been attacking the Blitz Team in the courts.

The company has filed at least three lawsuits against the team of former employees in three jurisdictions. In the Republic of Belarus, Wargaming demands to recover $1.69 million from five people. In Cyprus, it is required to prohibit the use of the word Blitz by the studio. As for California, here it wants to cancel the Blitz Team trademark registration applications.

Also on the topic:

• Wargaming has filed a third lawsuit against a team of former employees — Blitz TeamWargaming has achieved the removal of its former employees’ games from the European App Store
• Wargaming has sued former employees.
• She demands $1.69 million from them.Is there any news?