Epic Games says it didn't steal anything that belonged to Apple

In the latest salvo, Epic Games said Epic did not "steal" anything that belonged to Apple.

The company did not "interfere with any prospective economic advantage Apple sought to gain from Fortnite users separate and apart from their interest in Fortnite," the filing read.

The latest Epic move against Apple after a US judge ruled earlier this month that Apple can keep blocking the popular game Fortnite permanently but restrained the Cupertino-based iPhone maker from retaliating against the open and real-time 3D creation platform Unreal Engine owned by Epic Games which is also the developer of Fortnite.

Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers refused to grant Epic Games a preliminary injunction against Apple, The Verge reported.

In August, Epic Games introduced a new direct-payment system in its Fortnite game to bypass Apple's 30 per cent App Store fee.

Apple then removed Fortnite from the App Store for violating its rules.

In its latest filing, Epic said: "Apple's repeated assertions of theft boil down to the extraordinary assertion that Epic's collection of payments by players of Epic's game to enjoy the work of Epic's artists, designers, and engineers is the taking of something that belongs to Apple".

Apple was yet to comment on the new court filing.

Daily active users of the Fortnite game have plummeted more than 60 per cent on Apple iOS devices since the ban.

Unless Epic decides to remove its own in-app payment mechanism that initiated the bitter legal feud in August, it has no chance to bring Fortnite back on the App Store.