Riot Games is back in the news, and back in the courts, as they’ve recently filed a lawsuit against a mobile games developer, alleging copyright infringement. Riot claims that several games by the mobile developer Shanghai Moonton Technology engaged in “ongoing, willfull and bad faith infringement of Riot’s intellecutal property rights.”
Riot, as most gamers are familiar, is the developer behind what is and will likely forever be the most popular multiplayer game in the world: League of Legends. Riot says that three games by Shanghai Moonton Technology, by the names of Magic Rush: Heroes, Mobile Legends: 5v5 MOBA and Mobile Legends: Bang bang, “contains (or at one time contained) a vast array of elements that were directly appropriated from LoL, including but no limited to LoL‘s characters, artwork, map designs, and unit monster designs.”
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Riot further alleges that these games are advertised with a font similar to Riot’s League of Legends logo font, designed to confuse the consumer into conflating the two. You can see the gameplay and the font in the one-minute trailer for Mobile Legends: Bang bang below.
Riot also outlined how it originally attempted to avoid going through the legal route, instead reporting the game to Google and having Moonton remove their game from the Google Play store. However, “Immediately after removing Mobile Legends: 5v5 MOBA, Moonton (without notifying Riot or Google) released a ‘new’ game, Mobile Legends: Bang bang. However, Mobile Legends: Bang bang was not a new game at all, but in fact was the exact same game […] with some modest changes.”
Riot is seeking full control of all infringing material and compensatory damages sustained by Riot, in addition to legal fees. This lawsuit was filed on July 6, but was only just obtained and first reported by Slingshot eSports. You can read the full court filing here.
Riot is not to be trifled with in the court room, with a judge awarding Riot in may a $10 million victory in a suit against a bot-scripting website.
