Chinese court rules Wemade can decide what to do with its IP

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Chinese court rules Wemade can decide what to do with its IP

Published: 10 Jan. 2023, 18:55 Updated: 10 Jan. 2023, 19:29

Game publisher Wemade won multiple lawsuits against Actoz Soft over its adaptation rights of its game title The Legend of Mir 2. [WEMADE]

A Chinese court ruled in favor of Wemade in relation to multiple lawsuits against the Korean game publisher over adaptation rights.

The lawsuit was filed by Actoz Soft, a Korean game company subsidiary of Chinese game publisher Shengqu Games.

Actoz Soft tried to ban any intellectual property (IP) adaptations or licensing of Wemade’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) The Legend of Mir 2.

However, the court ruled that any decisions about the adaptation or licensing of IP of the Wemade game are up to the company itself, and therefore the publisher has the right to form multiple IP contracts with its Chinese partners.

Wemade announced Tuesday that the court ruled in favor of the game publisher’s licensing contract with Chinese partner Zhongchuanyuezhong Cultural Development Corporation. The two companies formed a partnership to create non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of Mir 2.

Although Mir 2 was developed by Wemade, the copyright of the title was co-owned by Wemade and Actoz Soft, its investor at the time.

In 2020, Wemade won a similar lawsuit against Actoz Soft and Shanda Games’ affiliate Lansha Information Technology in Singapore. A Singaporean court ruled that the license of Mir 2 belongs to the game publisher and that the software license agreement for the title signed by Wemade, Actoz Soft and Lansha Information Technology had expired.

"We believe our justness is shown through the court trials," said Wemade in a statement. "We will outline our licensing business with our Chinese partners through our achievements [...] We will no longer engage in exhaustive arguments with Actoz Soft."

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]