WeMade accuses Shengqu Games of withholding $600 mn in royalties

WeMade Co. on Monday asked the South Korean government to intervene in its ongoing copyright dispute with China’s Shengqu Games, accusing the company of withholding 840 billion won ($600 million) in unpaid royalties.

In 2001, WeMade entered into a licensing agreement with the Shanghai-based game publisher to jointly share the copyright of "The Legend of Mir 2," its flagship online game franchise.

The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) has since made a big splash in China, but Shengqu Games allegedly failed to pay royalties on the intellectual property between 2002 and 2005.

Their copyright disputes later expanded to include Actoz Soft Co. –  from which WeMade was spun off in 2000 – after Shengqu Games took over Actoz in 2005.

Their conflict escalated after Shengqu Games began licensing the Mir intellectual property to a third party in China from 2014, without WeMade’s consent.

Shengqu Games has also not paid royalties related to the licensing deal.

DEFYING ARBITRATION RULING

WeMade brought the case to the International Court of Arbitration (ICC), which in 2023 ordered Shengqu Games to pay 1.5 billion yuan ($206 million) in damages to WeMade.

The arbitration body also held Actoz Soft jointly liable for the unpaid royalties, ordering it to pay 150 billion won to WeMade in damages.

However, neither company has complied with the ICC's decision. In February, WeMade petitioned a Chinese court to enforce the arbitration award.

WeMade also accused another Chinese game publisher, Kingnet, of not paying royalties for three Legend of Mir-based titles. It argued that Chinese courts have failed to enforce payment without providing a reasonable explanation.

Write to Jeong-Hoon An at Ajh6321@hankyung.com
 


Yeonhee Kim edited this article.