The team over at PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has made itself very clear – if do make your own Battle Royale game, it better not be based entirely on theirs.

The PUBG Corp. has recently filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the developer of two mobile clones, in an effort to lock down the ripping off of PUBG assets, according to Torrent Freak.

The two games in question are Rules of Survival and Knives Out, and the company noted that it feels the games got a little too close to covering specific elements taken from Battlegrounds, and, as a result, it appears that could be confusing the public to some extent. With the lawsuit, PUBG Corp. has made it clear that it wants its assets taken out of the games.

NetEase is the publisher behind the two mobile games, and the suit says it’s guilty of copyright infringement, as well as unfair competition and trade dress infringement.

The complaint was filed in a federal court in California, and noted that the main reason for the release of the games was to gain market share. And it’s a doozy – the complaint covers 155 pages in all, talking about how smaller things, like weapons, clothing and buildings were lifted from the Battlegrounds property.

“On information and belief, Defendants copied PUBG’s expressive depictions of the pre-play area where other depictions could have been used for the purpose of evoking the same gameplay experience depicted in BATTLEGROUNDS,” one section of the complaint reads.

But if that’s not sacred enough, it turns out both of Netease’s releases have also stolen something iconic from PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – the phrase “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner.” That’s right, apparently Knives Out and Rules of Survival have apparently borrowed the trademark meal without permission.

“Defendants intended to create consumer confusion as to the source of ROS and intended to cause consumers to believe, incorrectly, that ROS had been developed by PUBG.”

Considering that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is currently available for mobile devices, PUBG Corp just wants to make sure that no one’s trying to take advantage of their audience – which it seems like NetEase is out to do.

“PUBG has suffered irreparable harm as a result of Defendants’ infringing activities and will continue to suffer irreparable harm in the future unless Defendants are enjoined from their infringing conduct,” the suit notes.

Posted: Apr 06, 2018 3:17 pm
Last Updated: Apr 06, 2018 3:19 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: http://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/04/05/playerunknowns-battlegrounds-lawsuit-mobile-netease/