R2M, Lineage M Plagiarism Ruling... Both NC and Webzen Announce Appeals

NC Wins First Trial Lawsuit... Legal Battle Expected to Prolong

NCSoft won the first trial of the copyright infringement lawsuit filed against Webzen's 'R2M' for plagiarizing its 'Lineage M'.

The Civil Division 61 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Kim Se-yong) held a verdict hearing on the 18th for the copyright infringement lawsuit filed by NCSoft against Webzen regarding Lineage M, accepting the plaintiff's (NCSoft's) claim of violation of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act and ruling in favor of the plaintiff.

The court ruled, "The game provided as R2M must not be advertised, copied, distributed, or transmitted," and ordered Webzen to pay 1 billion KRW to the plaintiff.

NCSoft filed the copyright infringement lawsuit against Webzen in June 2021, claiming that the mobile massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) R2M, released by Webzen in August 2020, imitated Lineage M. Lineage M is a mobile MMORPG based on the 'Lineage' intellectual property (IP) and is NCSoft's flagship game. NCSoft argued that R2M copied major content and expressive elements of Lineage M, such as characters and the transformation system. Webzen countered that the 'expressions' NCSoft claimed to be infringed were merely game rules and thus not subject to copyright protection.

Having won the first trial, NCSoft plans to expand the scope of the claim amount through the appeal process. An NCSoft representative stated, "This ruling is significant in that the copyright and creativity of IP and game content, which are core assets of companies, have been legally recognized," adding, "We expect this ruling to serve as a meaningful turning point in raising awareness of copyright in the game industry." Webzen also plans to appeal after reviewing the judgment.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.