The 4-year legal battle between Nexon and startup game company Ironmace over the copyright to the online game "Dark and Darker" will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. With this, the lawsuit between the two companies that has continued since 2021 will carry over into the new year.
On the 26th, according to the game industry and according to legal sources, Nexon recently filed a petition for appeal to the Supreme Court against Ironmace.
Earlier, the Civil Division 5 of the Seoul High Court on the 4th ruled partly in favor of the plaintiff in the appeals trial of Nexon Korea's lawsuit seeking an injunction against trade secret and copyright infringement filed against Ironmace and Ironmace CEO Choi Joo-hyun, among others. The court said, "The defendants shall pay the plaintiff 5.76464 billion won."
Although the scope of Nexon's trade secrets that Ironmace was found to have infringed in the second instance increased compared with the first instance, the damages decreased from about 8.5 billion won to 5.7 billion won.
Both Nexon and Ironmace said immediately after the ruling that they would review whether to appeal, and it appears that, after careful consideration as the deadline for appeal approached, they decided to seek a Supreme Court ruling.
Nexon has argued since 2021 that key personnel from its former undisclosed project (P3) took internal materials out to personal servers, founded Ironmace, and made "Dark and Darker," and has pursued litigation.