Chinese court orders copycat company to pay Korean game publisher Wemade 95.5 billion won

A Chinese court ruled in favor of Korean game publisher Wemade, ordering a copycat company to pay 95.5 billion won ($67.5 million) in compensation on Friday.

Wemade filed a lawsuit against Zhejiang Huanyou Network Technology, a Chinese game company that copied Wemade’s Mir 2 online game in 2017. A Singapore-based arbitration court ruled in May 2019 that the Chinese company should pay Wemade the license fees.

But Zhejiang Huanyou did not pay. Wemade then filed a suit with a Chinese court in June 2020, demanding Shanghai Kaiying Network Technology, the company that owns Zhejiang Huanyou, to pay up.

The court found that the two Chinese companies share a responsibility in the case and that they must pay 95.5 billion won to the Korean game company.

“We have also seized Kaiying Network’s cash and assets,” the company said in a press release. “We plan to carry out the ruling through effective measures such as execution proceedings.”

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]