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Riot Games sues Mobile Legends developer Shanghai Moonton Technology for copyright infringement

Mobile MOBA developer alleged to have ripped design and art from League of Legends

Riot Games sues Mobile Legends developer Shanghai Moonton Technology for copyright infringement

League of Legends developer Riot Games is suing mobile games developer Shanghai Moonton Technology for copyright infringement of its flagship MOBA.

As reported by Slingshot, the LoL developer is accusing Moonton of infringing on copyright with its games Magic Rush: Heroes, Mobile Legends: 5v5 MOBA, and Mobile Legends: Bang bang. Moonton is alleged to have stolen characters, designs, artwork, and more.

Riot also claims to have notified Google that Moonton was infringing on its copyright before, causing the developer to remove Mobile Legends: 5v5 MOBA from stores. However, it then re-released the game with a few minor changes under the name Mobile Legends: Bang bang.

Unreal

Moonton has responded to the allegations on Facebook, stating that Mobile Legends was developed independently and is copyright protected around the world. It also blamed the media for sharing "unreal reports" about its game.

"Mobile Legends and all users will not be affected by these unreal reports and we will keep providing the best gameplay experience to players all over the world," the company said in its statement.

Riot Games is a PC-only developer, but its parent company Tencent is the developer behind mobile MOBA Honor of Kings. It has been an enormous success, and was the top grossing game worldwide in May 2017.


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Ric is the Editor of PocketGamer.biz, having started out as a Staff Writer on the site back in 2015. He received an honourable mention in both the MCV and Develop 30 Under 30 lists in 2016 and refuses to let anyone forget about it.