Riot Games, Moonton Settle Copyright Dispute After 7 Years Of Drama

Nearly seven years ago, we discussed a copyright dispute between Riot Games and a Chinese game publisher, Moonton. At issue were mobile games published by Moonton, such as Mobile Legends, that sure looked like fairly straight clones of Riot Games titles, chiefly League of Legends. We don't typically cover what look like legit copyright disputes, since they aren't really our flavor of news. We did so in this case primarily because of comments Moonton put out publicly, including a flat denial of the copyright claims as well as some cryptic comments about the publisher protecting" itself from media that was putting out good-faith reporting on the dispute. Here is that snippet from Moonton's statement.

Meanwhile, for some media and competitors who have spread the unreal information and rumors against us, we reserve the right to protect ourselves and pursue legal actions.

So, what has happened in the subsequent seven years? Well, mostly a great deal of confusion as to where this dispute should even be heard, for starters.

The two gaming giants have been locked in disputes since 2017 when Riot Games initially sued MOONTON, alleging the replication of in-game elements from their popular game, League of Legends. The case, however, was dismissed, with the court ruling that it fell under the jurisdiction of a Chinese court.

Back in 2022, Riot Games reignited legal proceedings against MOONTON, claiming copyright infringement over certain content in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang that resembled elements from both League of Legends and its mobile version, League of Legends: Wild Rift. The US court dismissed the case, suggesting that it should be resolved in a different jurisdiction.

So, a great deal of flailing about with US courts deciding America was not the proper venue for any of this. Meanwhile, in true Streisand Effect fashion, the dispute and some of the commentary from Moonton attacking the press served only to keep the accusations of copyright infringement and cloning circulating around the gaming media and press.

And then, after all of this volleying of venues and lawsuits, both sides recently settled the dispute and the lawsuits are going away.

Riot Games has formally concluded its extensive legal dispute with MOONTONGames regarding intellectual property matters linked to Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

MOONTON Games and Riot Games have reached a global settlement on their intellectual property disputes. After several rounds of communication, the two parties officially signed a settlement agreement recently, and Riot Games decided to formally withdraw the related lawsuits," MOONTON Games announced in a release sent to the media.

Although the details of the settlement are undisclosed, Riot Games' withdrawal of lawsuits indicates a mutual agreement between the two entities.

As always, these undisclosed settlement terms are immensely frustrating and prevent us from seeing what was actually agreed to under the hood. That being said, given the pictorial evidence in the suits to back up the claims of cloning and copyright infringement, it is difficult for me to believe that Moonton walked away from this without donating any pints of blood to Riot's lawyers.

And my real point in all of this harkens back to Moonton's statement about protecting itself from rumors in the media. To publicly comment on this same dispute's resolution that still doesn't provide any clarity to the public and media as to what actually happened here and what was agreed to serves only to prolong the rumor mill filling in the void. If the company really wants to protect itself from the scary, evil media, it could try being just a bit transparent.