The creators of the most popular video games League of Legends and League of Legends: Wildrift, Riot Games, have an interesting update regarding their claim of copyright infringement against MOONTON, the creator of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. On May 9, 2022, the lawsuit was submitted to the US District Court for the Central District of California. According to the District Court’s decision, the parties should settle their differences in China, where it is considered more appropriate, as stated in the grounds for dismissal of the case.

Riot Games and MOONTON have been in dispute for a long time

The history of disputes between the two businesses is rather interesting. Additionally, MOONTON Games was sued by Riot Games in 2018 over alleged plagiarism in League of Legends. They had to take their case to a Chinese court in order to advance because a Californian court had rejected it in a related case. Tencent Holdings, the parent firm of Riot Games and a Chinese corporation, won the $2.9 million case.

Court tells Riot Games to take the lawsuit to China

The Central District of California US District Court, which is handling the matter, has ruled that China should be the place where the two corporations’ disagreement is settled. While Moonton is a Chinese firm, Riot Games, while having its headquarters in Los Angeles, is still controlled by the Chinese conglomerate Tencent. With this justification, Moonton’s legal team submitted a “forum non conveniens” argument, essentially saying that the trial should be held in a different court.

Furthermore, he believed it was unreasonable to allow Riot and Tencent to fight Moonton on two fronts, as the court had previously mentioned. Additionally, MOONTON was the target of separate accusations from Tencent in China. Noteworthy is the fact that Tencent.

The fact that the court was unable to determine whether Riot Games, which is based in the United States, or its parent company Tencent, a subsidiary of Riot Games, which has its headquarters in China, produced the components of Wild Rift made the situation for Riot Games much worse. This information, it is believed, has been crucial to MOONTON’s copyright defenses.

The issue, according to Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald, is whether or not the situation has altered since 2017. The judge’s disappointment with the ongoing parallel China litigation’s lack of progress, however, is a sign that Riot was merely hoping for a second chance without any additional justification.