By Yoon Sung-won
Netmarble Games has denied allegations that it infringed intellectual property rights over its mobile board game "Everyone's Marble."
Smaller Korean mobile game firm iPeoples has sued Netmarble Games for patent infringement and an act of unfair competition. But Netmarble Games said Thursday it will take legal counteraction against the claims.
"We plan to definitely take legal action (against the lawsuit)," Netmarble Games said. "We are very embarrassed to face such a sudden lawsuit as we have already provided games like Quiz Marble, Rich Marble and Everyone's Marble, all of which have a similar game style, over the past 16 years. There also have been many other games with a similar style overseas for a long time."
Netmarble Games said it released the computer online games "Quiz Marble" in 2000, "Rich Marble" in 2004 and "Everyone's Marble" in 2012. Based on the same game style, the company released the mobile version of "Everyone's Marble" in June 2013.
The mobile version of "Everyone's Marble" has been one of the company's most successful mobile games in the Korean game market and is estimated to generate about 30 billion won ($25.35 million) in monthly sales. For this reason, the litigation value is could reach tens of billions of won, according to industry sources.
On Wednesday, iPeoples said it is suing Netmarble Games for allegedly stealing the design concepts of its mobile game "Blue Marble," which was made by iPeoples subsidiary M2Games in 2008. It said Netmarble Games' "Everyone's Marble" has borrowed game conventions such as landmark construction, dice rules and turn limitations.
"Blue Marble is based on the board game made by BM Creative-Art in 1982," iPeoples said. "We have established an exclusive licensing contract with BM Creative-Art regarding Blue Marble. But Netmarble Games has imitated the board game without permission from BM Creative-Art."
The board game "Blue Marble," developed by BM Creative-Art CEO Lee Sang-bae, is a Korean version of popular U.S. board game "Monopoly." In this game, two to four players roll two dice to move around cities worldwide to buy land and construct buildings.
According to iPeoples, M2Games was hit hard after Netmarble Games released "Everyone's Marble" in 2013, shutting down in 2015.
It also claimed BM Creative-Art refused a licensing contract request from Netmarble Games because it already had an exclusive deal with iPeoples. Netmarble Games has promoted "Everyone's Marble" as an online version of "Blue Marble" even without a license from BM Creative-Art, according to iPeoples.
"It is against the business ethics for a large enterprise like Netmarble Games to illegally use the intellectual property of small game businesses like us and promote its games like it has without the proper license from the original source," iPeoples said. "It is also not irrelevant to the current environment in the Korean game market where many small game companies are shutting down while losing the competitiveness of their games."
Meanwhile, iPeoples is planning to release a new mobile version of "Blue Marble" under an exclusive contract with BM Creative-Art.
Netmarble Games has denied allegations that it infringed intellectual property rights over its mobile board game "Everyone's Marble."
Smaller Korean mobile game firm iPeoples has sued Netmarble Games for patent infringement and an act of unfair competition. But Netmarble Games said Thursday it will take legal counteraction against the claims.
"We plan to definitely take legal action (against the lawsuit)," Netmarble Games said. "We are very embarrassed to face such a sudden lawsuit as we have already provided games like Quiz Marble, Rich Marble and Everyone's Marble, all of which have a similar game style, over the past 16 years. There also have been many other games with a similar style overseas for a long time."
Netmarble Games said it released the computer online games "Quiz Marble" in 2000, "Rich Marble" in 2004 and "Everyone's Marble" in 2012. Based on the same game style, the company released the mobile version of "Everyone's Marble" in June 2013.
The mobile version of "Everyone's Marble" has been one of the company's most successful mobile games in the Korean game market and is estimated to generate about 30 billion won ($25.35 million) in monthly sales. For this reason, the litigation value is could reach tens of billions of won, according to industry sources.
On Wednesday, iPeoples said it is suing Netmarble Games for allegedly stealing the design concepts of its mobile game "Blue Marble," which was made by iPeoples subsidiary M2Games in 2008. It said Netmarble Games' "Everyone's Marble" has borrowed game conventions such as landmark construction, dice rules and turn limitations.
"Blue Marble is based on the board game made by BM Creative-Art in 1982," iPeoples said. "We have established an exclusive licensing contract with BM Creative-Art regarding Blue Marble. But Netmarble Games has imitated the board game without permission from BM Creative-Art."
The board game "Blue Marble," developed by BM Creative-Art CEO Lee Sang-bae, is a Korean version of popular U.S. board game "Monopoly." In this game, two to four players roll two dice to move around cities worldwide to buy land and construct buildings.
According to iPeoples, M2Games was hit hard after Netmarble Games released "Everyone's Marble" in 2013, shutting down in 2015.
It also claimed BM Creative-Art refused a licensing contract request from Netmarble Games because it already had an exclusive deal with iPeoples. Netmarble Games has promoted "Everyone's Marble" as an online version of "Blue Marble" even without a license from BM Creative-Art, according to iPeoples.
"It is against the business ethics for a large enterprise like Netmarble Games to illegally use the intellectual property of small game businesses like us and promote its games like it has without the proper license from the original source," iPeoples said. "It is also not irrelevant to the current environment in the Korean game market where many small game companies are shutting down while losing the competitiveness of their games."
Meanwhile, iPeoples is planning to release a new mobile version of "Blue Marble" under an exclusive contract with BM Creative-Art.
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