Project Moon Partially Wins First Trial in "WonderLab" Webtoon Copyright Lawsuit... Plans to Appeal

Game developer Project Moon has partially won the first trial regarding the copyright of the webtoon "WonderLab," which was created based on its own intellectual property (IP).

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On April 30, the Seoul Central District Court issued this ruling in a lawsuit filed by webtoon artist Park Geurim, who had developed popular games such as "Lobotomy Corporation" and "Limbus Company," against Project Moon, seeking confirmation of copyright ownership.

The court acknowledged that "WonderLab was created based on the world view and other settings from games produced by Project Moon." As a result, for the part of Park's claim requesting a ban on Project Moon from producing new works such as animations and games based on WonderLab as the original work, the court dismissed all claims, stating, "This is not a matter that the enforcement agency can judge."

This dispute began in earnest around 2023, after the serialization of the webtoon had ended. At the time of the series' conclusion, Park did not raise any copyright issues, but in 2023, Park requested Project Moon to take WonderLab offline and registered herself as the sole copyright holder with the Korea Copyright Commission without Project Moon's agreement. When Project Moon objected, Park filed this lawsuit on April 3, 2024, escalating the situation into a legal dispute.

Law firm Gwangjang, which represented Project Moon, stated regarding the ruling, "The court acknowledged that the artist's claim was improper." In particular, Gwangjang emphasized, "WonderLab was produced based on Project Moon's world view, and from the planning stage, the defendant (Project Moon) provided serial publication concepts and creative guidelines, and carried out specific and ongoing direction and supervision over terminology, dialogue, character settings, art style, and production methods. The court also recognized some of these facts."

However, the first-instance court ruled that the artist retained rights with respect to the creative expression of specific elements, and ultimately determined that the webtoon itself is the sole copyright work of the artist. Project Moon has announced its intention to appeal the portion of the first trial it lost, seeking full recognition of its rights.

Project Moon stated, "We have devoted significant resources and effort to building a large fan base based on our expansive world view, and during the production of the WonderLab webtoon, we provided tangible support by paying the artist a monthly salary regardless of whether the series was ongoing. Through the appeal, we hope to receive a rational and fair judgment based on the circumstances and substance of this case, so that unnecessary copyright disputes can be preemptively prevented in the process of expanding our world view."

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