In the legal battle between Nexon and Ironmace that stemmed from allegations that "Dark and Darker" was developed by leaking Nexon's confidential project materials, the appellate court recognized a lower damages amount than the first trial.
The Seoul High Court's Civil Division 5 on the 4th ruled in the second-instance lawsuit filed by Nexon Korea seeking to ban trade secret and copyright infringement against Ironmace that "the damages the defendants must pay Nexon are about 5.7 billion won." This is about 3 billion won less than the 8.5 billion won recognized in the first trial.
However, the court found that the scope of trade secrets infringed by Ironmace was broader than in the first trial. The court said, "The P3 program, source code, and build files, which the first trial found difficult to regard as trade secrets, can be specifically identified as trade secrets," adding, "The protection period for the trade secrets is viewed as 2 years and 6 months, rather than 2 years."
Even so, the damages were lowered because the court comprehensively assessed the extent to which the trade secrets contributed to the development of "Dark and Darker." The court said, "The contribution of the P3 trade secrets to the game's production is about 15%," and calculated the damages at 5.7 billion won.
By contrast, Nexon's claim of copyright infringement was not accepted on appeal, following the first trial. The court dismissed the related claim, saying, "Nexon's P3 and Ironmace's Dark and Darker are not substantially similar in their form of expression."
Nexon has argued since 2021 that Chief Executive Choi Juhyeon, who served as head of the P3 development team, siphoned project materials to a personal server, then founded Ironmace based on them and produced "Dark and Darker," and has pursued litigation. The first trial rejected copyright infringement but recognized trade secret infringement, ordering Ironmace to pay 8.5 billion won in damages, and both sides appealed.