Riot Games and Moonton settled the League of Legends plagiarism dispute eight years later
Riot Games has dropped its claims against Shanghai-based Moonton studio, best known for MOBA Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. According to GamesIndustry, she agreed to sign a settlement agreement and withdraw all claims.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
The details of the settlement agreement are not disclosed, so it is not known on what terms the parties agreed.
History of the conflict:
- Riot Games first came out against Moonton in 2016, shortly after Chinese developers released the mobile game Magic Rush: Heroes. According to the company, the title was too similar to League of Legends. She turned to Moonton with a demand to make changes to Magic Rush: Heroes, and until then remove MOBA from the app stores. The studio agreed and updated the game;
- however, in mid-2016, Moonton released Mobile Legends: 5v5 MOBA, which Riot Games also accused of plagiarizing League of Legends. In response to Riot Games' complaint, the developers removed the game from the app stores, but almost immediately released Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. According to Riot Games, this is practically the same game, and it still copies many elements of League of Legends.;
- In June 2017, Riot Games filed a lawsuit against Moonton in the California District Court, accusing the studio of copyright infringement. She asked the court to prohibit Moonton from copying League of Legends, as well as to oblige her to compensate the company for the damage caused;
Images from the Riot Games lawsuit. On the left — League of Legends, on the right — Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
- A California court dismissed the claim. He pointed out that Moonton is registered in China, as is Tencent, the parent company of Riot Games, so it is more logical for the parties to sue in China. Riot Games did not agree with this, but soon Tencent did send several lawsuits to the courts of Shanghai and Shenzhen. One goes directly to Moonton, the second goes to the studio's CEO and founder Xu Zhenhua, who worked at Tencent before Moonton opened;
- In 2018, Tencent won a court case against Xu. She was awarded compensation in the amount of 19.4 million yuan, or about 2.9 million dollars at the exchange rate at that time. However, in 2020, Tencent lost a lawsuit against Moonton and was obliged to pay 220 thousand yuan ($30,000) compensation to the studio for "damage to business reputation";
- In May 2022, Riot Games again appealed to the California District Court with a complaint against Moonton. This time, she claimed that Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is not copying League of Legends, but the mobile League of Legends: Wild Rift. In November, a California court dismissed the lawsuit and stressed that companies need to resolve the dispute in China. Riot Games has since filed an appeal.
Images from the Riot Games lawsuit. On the left — League of Legends: Wild Rift, on the right — Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
