Legend of Mir 2 (Image courtesy of Wemade)
SEOUL, Jun. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – In an ongoing copyright battle over the “Legend of Mir” intellectual property jointly owned by game developers Actoz Soft and WeMade, South Korea’s Supreme Court has ruled that the case should be re-examined based on Chinese law, not domestic regulations.
On June 6, it was reported that the Supreme Court’s First Division partially overturned a previous appeals court ruling that favored Actoz Soft in its lawsuit against Wemade over copyright infringement and damages related to the “Legend of Mir” IP. The case has been sent back to the Seoul High Court.
“Legend of Mir” is a seminal massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) franchise released as a series in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with its second and third installments gaining immense popularity in South Korea and China.
In 2015, WeMade utilized the “Legend of Mir” IP to develop a new mobile game that achieved considerable success in China, establishing itself as the company’s flagship title.
The copyrights for “Legend of Mir 2″ and “Legend of Mir 3″ are jointly held by Actoz Soft and WeMade. WeMade was founded by Park Kwan-ho, the current CEO, who previously worked at Actoz Soft on “Legend of Mir 2″ and left on the condition of receiving a share of the IP.
The two companies have been embroiled in disputes since the early 2000s, reaching an agreement in 2003 giving Actoz Soft 20-30% of the revenue from the shared IP, while WeMade would take 70-80%.
However, the success of mobile games utilizing the “Legend of Mir” IP in China between 2014 and 2016 reignited the conflict. Despite reaching a settlement last August, the companies did not withdraw their lawsuits filed in South Korean courts.
In 2017, Actoz Soft sued WeMade, alleging that the latter had unilaterally granted Chinese companies the right to use the “Legend of Mir” IP, infringing on Actoz Soft’s copyrights.
The district and appeals courts initially sided with Actoz Soft, ruling that while WeMade did not infringe on the copyrights, they were required to pay Actoz Soft 20% of the usage fees based on their pre-agreed ratio.
However, the Supreme Court overturned the appeals court decision, stating that applying domestic law was incorrect.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works stipulates that “the extent of protection, as well as the means of redress afforded to the author to protect his rights, shall be governed exclusively by the laws of the country where protection is claimed.” Since protection is claimed in China, the court deemed that Chinese law is applicable.
Additionally, the Supreme Court noted that for the part of the copyright contract where WeMade was granted the right to use the “Legend of Mir” IP worldwide, it should be further examined in which specific countries the copyrights were infringed upon.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
