With game companies Nexon and Ironmace locked in a legal battle over the copyright to the game "Dark and Darker" for a fifth year, a final ruling will come on the 30th.
The Supreme Court's Second Division (presiding Justice Park Young-jae) will hold a sentencing hearing that day in Nexon Korea's appeal in its lawsuit seeking to bar Ironmace from misappropriating trade secrets and infringing copyright.
Choi Ju-hyun, the head of Ironmace, previously worked in Nexon's new development division as the leader of the "Project P3" development team. Choi later went independent, founded a company, and released "Dark and Darker," and Nexon filed suit in 2021, saying Choi leaked internal information to develop the game.
The court of first instance found that Ironmace misappropriated trade secrets and ordered 8.5 billion won in damages. It did not accept Nexon's claims of copyright infringement and a service ban.
The appellate court also found that Ironmace did not infringe Nexon's copyright but did misappropriate trade secrets, and it ordered Ironmace to pay Nexon 5.7 billion won. Both Nexon and Ironmace appealed.
Ironmace is also embroiled in a criminal case. The Criminal Division 3 of the Seongnam Branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office indicted without detention in Feb. the head of Choi and two other former Nexon employees, as well as the Ironmace corporation, on charges including violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act (leaking trade secrets).
Choi and others are accused of siphoning off core trade secrets, including original files and source code for the "P3" under development, when leaving Nexon from 2021 to 2023.