Moonton claims an IP infringement of its Mobile Legends: Bang Bang against Tencent, which had come up with a similar mobile game called Honour of Kings and League of Legends. This court battle has gotten even big after Moonton was acquired by ByteDance, Tencent’s rival.
An IP Infringement of Video Games
Similar to copyright infringements happening in the space of music and video, a range of such allegations happen in the game industry too. And it may take years for certain cases to resolve. A notable one in this pursuit is the feud between Moonton Technology vs. Tencent, where the former is accusing the latter of intellectual property infringement regarding its Mobile Legends: Bang Bang game. The game was so popular in Southeast Asia that and pushed Moonton’s name to shine in the overseas market. Well, this also attracted the homegrown giant Tencent, which soon came up with a couple of similar games like the Honour of Kings and League of Legends. And more intriguingly, Tencent sued back Moonton for copying its games to make the Mobile Legends. This dispute only got bigger when ByteDance (Tencent’s rival) acquired Moonton last year – outbidding Tencent. Since then, they have been fighting against this IP in every way possible. And as per the updated schedule on the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court’s website, Tencent will be required to stand trial on Tuesday regarding this. As ByteDance is ramping up its efforts to beat Tencent in video gaming, it’ll never let any big opportunity that helps to counter it. And Moontoon’s lawsuit against Tencent is a significant one in this process.
