Steven Sharif Wins First Court Round in Ashes of Creation Fight With Temporary Restraining Order

A major new development has emerged in the legal battle surrounding Ashes of Creation and Intrepid Studios. Steven Sharif has secured his first meaningful court victory after Judge Linda Lopez of the US District Court for the Southern District of California granted his ex parte motion for a temporary restraining order on March 4, 2026. The federal order blocks TFE Games Holdings and the named board defendants from accessing, using, selling, or distributing Intrepid’s alleged trade secrets while the case moves forward.

The ruling is important because the court found Sharif had shown serious questions on the merits of 2 core claims, including the challenged Article 9 foreclosure process and the alleged misappropriation of Intrepid’s trade secrets. The order states that Sharif showed a sufficient basis to argue TFE may have acquired the disputed trade secret materials through wrongful acquisition, while the court also found irreparable harm because at least 1 potential buyer for Ashes of Creation and its related materials had already been identified.

The TRO does more than simply pause the dispute. According to the court order, the defendants are barred from accessing or exploiting Intrepid’s source code, algorithms, game assets, tools, and infrastructure related trade secrets. The court also froze access to a long list of key operational platforms, including services tied to development, communications, and cloud infrastructure. Judge Lopez further ordered that a neutral intellectual property custodian be appointed by March 9, 2026 to take control of passwords, credentials, and source control access until at least the preliminary injunction hearing scheduled for March 18, 2026.

That makes this a major procedural win for Sharif, even if it is still only an early stage order rather than a final ruling on ownership or liability. The court specifically found that the balance of hardships tipped sharply toward Sharif, reasoning that preserving the status quo would not meaningfully harm the defendants, while failing to do so could permanently deprive Intrepid of its most valuable assets. The public interest finding also favored protection of intellectual property and trade secrets.

At the same time, the legal situation remains messy because of the parallel Nevada action. Earlier, a Nevada state court had entered a temporary restraining order in TFE’s favor that reportedly moved in the opposite direction regarding access to certain accounts and credentials. The California federal court explicitly acknowledged that collision, noting that the 2 courts are operating from different premises about who lawfully owns Intrepid’s assets after the disputed foreclosure. That means jurisdictional and abstention questions are now likely to become a major battleground in the next stage of the case.

Sharif also addressed the situation publicly in a lengthy statement on Reddit, where he argued that the TRO prevents further dismantling or transfer of Intrepid’s assets and preserves the Ashes of Creation IP from being sold to a third party while the litigation continues. In that same statement, he denied claims that he personally took Steam revenue from the game’s early access launch and said the narrative blaming him for the collapse was part of a broader misinformation effort by Dawson and others.

This does not resolve the wider collapse of Ashes of Creation, nor does it establish who will ultimately control the project. Employees have reportedly already been terminated, the game has already been pulled from Steam, and the core allegations around foreclosure, financing, governance, and trade secret control are still headed toward deeper litigation. But in the short term, Sharif has succeeded in stopping TFE and the board from moving or monetizing the core technical assets at the center of the fight.

For now, this is the most important legal turning point in the saga since the lawsuits began. It is not a final victory, but it is the first clear sign that Sharif’s version of events is being taken seriously by a federal court. The next major checkpoint will be the March 18 preliminary injunction hearing, where the current emergency restrictions could either be strengthened, modified, or dissolved depending on how the court views the deeper ownership and trade secret issues.

What do you think, is this the beginning of Sharif regaining control over Ashes of Creation, or just the start of a much longer courtroom fight?