NC Loses Copyright Lawsuit Over Kakao Games’ 'ROM'... "Will Appeal"

NC: "ROM Imitated the Format and Components of Lineage W"

Court: "Not Subject to Copyright Protection, Minor Significance"

NC lost its lawsuit seeking an injunction against copyright infringement filed against Redlab Games and Kakao Games.

NC Pangyo R&D Center. Courtesy of NC

According to the gaming industry and legal community on July 13, the Seoul Central District Court’s Civil Agreement Division 62 (Presiding Judge Lee Hyunseok) recently ruled that the MMORPG ‘ROM: Remember of Majesty’ released by Redlab Games and Kakao Games did not infringe upon the copyright of NC’s ‘Lineage W’.

Previously, in 2024, NC claimed that ‘ROM’ had copied the game concept, content, art, user interface (UI), and direction of ‘Lineage W’, demanding a halt to copyright infringement and compensation for damages. Specifically, NC argued that ‘ROM’ had imitated the following elements of ‘Lineage W’: the transformation and magic doll system, the equipment enhancement system, the item collection system, the player-versus-player (PvP) system, and the combination of various visual expression forms and components.

Redlab Games and Kakao Games refuted these claims. They argued that the game elements mentioned by NC are merely ideas, not specific expressions protected by copyright law, and that these were borrowed and combined from works released prior to ‘Lineage W’, lacking originality. They also asserted that the components of the two games are not substantially similar.

The court ruled in favor of Redlab Games and Kakao Games. It pointed out that most of ‘Lineage W’s components are merely ideas, which are not subject to copyright protection, and that the elements were simply adopted from prior games, thus lacking originality or similarity to ‘ROM’.

The court further stated that while the transformation and magic doll system grade indicators and the shop NPC design are similar to those in ‘ROM’, their overall presence in the game is minor, making it difficult to consider them as copyright infringement. This judgment is in accordance with Supreme Court precedent, which requires consideration of the quantitative and qualitative significance of the copied expression within the original work when determining copyright infringement.

NC plans to appeal. An NC representative stated, “We will closely review the written judgment and seek a new ruling through the higher court.” Currently, NC is also pursuing appeals against Kakao Games, XLGAMES, and Webzen over alleged copyright infringement of ‘Lineage 2M’ by ‘ArcheAge War’ and of ‘Lineage M’ by ‘R2M’, respectively.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.