Tencent awarded $2.9M in case against dev of alleged League of Legends clone

Tencent has been awarded 19.4 Chinese Yuan (~$2.9 million) in a lawsuit filed against Mobile Legends developer Moonton.

According to Dot Esports, the suit itself was filed by Tencent in China after its subsidiary (and League of Legends dev) Riot Games’ initial case filed in California, against Moonton was dismissed. That dismissal itself was on the grounds that there was a more convenient jurisdiction for that particular lawsuit, leading to Tencent’s similar suit in China.

The Chinese redux instead was filed over non-disclosure and non-compete issues, notes Dot Esports, and eventually saw Tencent awarded 19.4 Chinese Yuan.

The original California suit accused “willful and bad faith infringement” of Riot’s League of Legends back in 2017.  Prior to its dismissal, that suit claimed that Moonton had essentially earned hundreds of thousands by riding on the back of League of Legends and sought to block Moonton from infringing on Riot’s IP in the future, as well as damages and reimbursement for legal fees and lost revenue.