The long-standing legal dispute between Wemade and ACTOZ SOFT over the "The Legend of Mir 2" intellectual property has concluded. Wemade has been awarded ₩93.7 billion and has won the right to enforce the collection.
On August 19, ACTOZ SOFT announced that the Seoul Central District Court approved enforcing the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitral award.
This legal dispute originated in May 2017, involving Wemade, ChuanQi IP, and the defendants, Lansha Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Shengqu Games, and ACTOZ SOFT, all over the rights over "The Legend of Mir 2."
Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited (now Shengqu Games) was granted the publishing rights to the Chinese version of "The Legend of Mir 2," known as "热血传奇," under a license agreement from 2001.
However, without the consent of Wemade and ACTOZ SOFT, the rightful copyright holders, Shanda granted unauthorized sublicenses for private servers, PC games, web games, and mobile games to other companies. Furthermore, no royalties were paid for these games.
In response, Wemade argued that Shanda had violated both the license agreement and Chinese copyright law, and filed for arbitration with the Singapore ICC, demanding $100 million (around ₩110 billion at the time) in damages. This dispute also led to several other lawsuits in Korea and China, with Wemade and ACTOZ SOFT engaging in a fierce legal battle.
In 2020, after three years of deliberation, the ICC issued a partial ruling, stating that the Software License Agreement (SLA) had expired in September 2017. The ruling ordered the defendants to cease using the trademarks, return them to Wemade and ChuanQi IP, and pay damages. The defendants filed an appeal for further arbitration.
Following this, Wemade and ChuanQi IP filed another lawsuit with the Singapore ICC, seeking damages for the SLA violation, with an initial claim of $2.16 billion (approximately ₩2.5 trillion at the time). The scale of this lawsuit drew significant attention, though the claim amount was later reduced by nearly half.
Soon after, the defendants sought to overturn the arbitration ruling, but later withdrew their appeal, bringing the arbitration to its final stages. Eventually, the ICC ruled that the defendants were ordered to pay the remaining costs and damages to the claimants, with the initial damages calculated in March 2023 at ₩92.1 billion.
Despite this, there have been attempts at reconciliation. In August 2023, Wemade's subsidiary, ChuanQi IP, signed a license agreement with ACTOZ SOFT for "The Legend of Mir 2" and "The Legend of Mir 3."
Under this agreement, ACTOZ SOFT secured the exclusive rights for licensing these games in China and agreed to pay Wemade ₩100 billion annually over five years, totaling ₩500 billion. Both companies have since withdrawn their respective lawsuits and are moving toward resolving their legal disputes.
However, the Singapore ICC arbitration case remains ongoing. In January 2024, Wemade sought a judgment from the Seoul Central District Court allowing the forced collection of ₩93.4 billion from the defendants, in order to enforce the ICC's ruling. Seven months later, in August, the court finally issued its decision.
The Seoul Central District Court ruled that there are no grounds under Article 5, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the New York Convention—an international treaty governing the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards—to overturn the arbitration decision. As a result, the ruling must be enforced, and the three companies are jointly and severally liable for paying ₩93.7 billion to the claimants, Wemade and ChuanQi IP.
On August 20, ACTOZ SOFT announced its decision to appeal the first-instance decision on the enforcement of the Singapore ICC ruling. ACTOZ SOFT argues that the decision should be overturned, that the claimants' requests should be dismissed, and that all costs should be borne by the claimants. The legal battle continues.
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김태만 기자 ktman21c@gamevu.co.kr
