Riot Games, the developers of the League of Legends, brought the makers of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Moonton, to court once again.
This photo illustration shows the Riot Games logo on a smartphone in front of the game "League of Legends" displayed on a computer screen in Los Angeles, December 27, 2021.
Riot Games v. Mobile Legends
The League of Legends developer sued Moonton, a gaming unit of the Chinese tech giant ByteDance, for what Riot Games called "blatant copying" of its mobile game.
Riot specifically said the Mobile Legends copied the mobile version of its hit multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) named Wild Rift, as per a news story by Reuters.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time that the Los Angeles-based firm Riot Games has filed a lawsuit against the makers of Mobile Legends.
Reuters mentioned in its report that Riot previously sued the gaming unit of ByteDance, the firm that owns TikTok, way back in 2017.
During that time, the League of Legends publisher also accused Mobile Legends and other Moonton gaming titles of copying the hit MOBA game. However, the federal judge ruled back then that it was more suitable to bring the case to China.
Riot did take the legal battle to the Chinese courts, winning the case against Moonton for a whopping $2.9 million.
In fact, it is only one of many legal battles that the Los Angeles gaming giant has initiated to go after League of Legends "rip-offs."
Riot Games Sues Mobile Legends Maker Moonton
This time around, the latest lawsuit from the makers of League of Legends filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California alleges the Chinese gaming firm of copying its hit game once again.
LEIPZIG, GERMANY - FEBRUARY 15: A participant stands with a mobile phone to play a video game at the 2019 DreamHack video gaming festival on February 15, 2019 in Leipzig, Germany.
It is interesting to note that Riot filed its latest complaint at the exact venue where it previously sued the ByteDance unit in 2018.
The latest lawsuit by Riot Games against Moonton now centers on the game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which is now available in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store in the North American region.
Mobile Legends, which Riot accused of being a League of Legends copy, currently ranks at the 67th spot in the Strategy category of the official app marketplace of the iPhone maker, according to a recent report by Polygon.
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Mobile Legends: A League of Legends Ripoff?
The Los Angeles gaming firm also stated in its lawsuit that Moonton is copying various elements of Wild Rift as Riot rolls out updates for its mobile title.
If we are going to be more specific about it, the Wild Rift publisher said that Mobile Legends sports various similarities with the mobile version of League of Legends, such as the design and skills of its characters and the overall interface of the game.
What's more, the suit further claimed that Moonton also created a ripped-off trailer of Wild Rift. Not to mention that Riot also said that the ByteDance unit has been copying its MOBA game since long ago in 2015.
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