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NCsoft files lawsuit to thwart TERA launch
AmbrosiaAmor
Member Posts: 915
This just recently showed up on the radar from MMO Culture.
http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/01/ncsoft-files-lawsuit-to-thwart-tera.html
"Just recently, it was announced that TERA will finally be launching this May in North America after several apparent delays. However, according to a lawsuit filed on 13th January 2012 by rival online games developer NCsoft, the launch date and plans might potentially be in jeopardy.
NCsoft Corp. filed a trade secrets and unfair competition lawsuit against rival Bluehole Studio Inc., claiming the company was created by former NCsoft employees (working on the fabled Lineage 3) who stole software and artwork to launch their own product. The full document is below."
In a complaint filed in New York federal court on Jan. 9, South Korea-based NCsoft, which specializes in massively multiplayer online role-playing games, or MMORPGs, says it has brought similar claims against Bluehole and its ex-employees in Korea, but that Bluehole is now planning to release an English-language version of its game in the U.S.
NCsoft maintains that Bluehole and its U.S. subsidiary En Masse Entertainment Inc. were founded by a group of NCsoft employees who quit to go into business for themselves in the midst of creating a new game called Lineage 3.
“These individuals did not leave NCsoft empty-handed or with benign intent,” the complaint alleges. “To the contrary, they made off with copious amounts of confidential and proprietary NCsoft information, computer software, hardware and artwork relating to Lineage 3.”
“Their business plan was simple and audacious: create a competing product using the very work they had done while at NCsoft, launch it themselves to great fanfare and acclaim, and, in the process, deal a crippling blow to their former employer,” the complaint said.
The former employees were convicted in Korea of stealing trade secrets from NCsoft in 2009, and the convictions were mostly upheld by an appellate court, according to the complaint.
NCsoft also lodged a civil complaint against the individuals and Bluehole in Korea in 2010. The company won damages and an injunction barring the individuals from using NCsoft's proprietary information going forward. However, the damages award was overturned by an appellate court.
Appeals of both the criminal and civil cases are currently pending before Korea's highest court.
Despite the litigation, Bluehole launched its game, Tera, in Korea last year, and has announced plans to release an English version in the U.S., the complaint alleges.
The current lawsuit claims that the U.S. version of Tera makes use of NCsoft's trade secrets, including documents, source code, artwork and know-how related to the development on Lineage 3, and copyrighted works, including concept art created for Lineage 3.
It also asserts claims of breach of confidence, unfair competition and unjust enrichment.
The suit seeks temporary and permanent injunctions blocking the release of Tera in the U.S., as well as enhanced damages for Bluehole's alleged misconduct.
Bluehole was not available for comment on Friday.
NCsoft is represented by Gene W. Lee, Jeanne C. Curtis and Peter J. Brody of Ropes & Gray LLP.
Counsel information for the defendants was not immediately available.
The case is NCsoft Corp. et al. v. Bluehole Studio Inc. et al., case number 1:12-cv-00172, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New York.
Comments
According to Scapes he said:
"Evening, folks. We're aware of this. It's our policy not to comment on legal matters."
Me:
/throws mouse out the window
/throws keyboard out the window
/throws desk out the window
/throws house out the window
/throws planet out the window
/throws galaxy out the window
So...they wait a full 2 years before bringing this up? Just when Tera plans to release in NA, their main source of income? *tin Foil Hat ON*
The Deep Web is sca-ry.
I didn't know this. I was looking forward to TERA but, if this is true, that's pretty scummy on their part. I don't see it actually being blocked in the US, though. Seems more likely some kind of agreement would be reached between the two companies. Guess we'll see.
@ Above poster - NCsoft's main source of income is not the US, they have a far larger audience in Korea and other parts of Asia.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Of course they're going to wait until launch plans are solidifying. It creates maximum exposure. Unfurtunately for TERA - this could be far FAR messier than the problems they faced in Korea (While they lost at pretty much every step - they were allowed to launch) The US is magnitudes more litiguous than Korea is.
They lost their lawsuit in Korea so now they take it to the NA courts, predictable.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
It says bluehole was convicted of stealing trade secrets in 2009.... so I dont think they lost. I think they sued early in development and won. Now they are releasing in the US... different court system. So they are sueing a second time.
I mean if it's true... that they jacked shit from NCsoft and sold it in their own game then yeah... thats illegal
"Don't mistake a fun game for a good game... Checkers is fun to play but its not exactly the highest point of gaming design... and definatly not worth $60 plus $15 a month"
I dont care about companies just w8ing to play TERA
Well actually they didn't lose the court case in the S.K. they won most of the original Bluehole developers went to jail. And i mean i get this, i would be mad also if all my employess left the project they were working on for me, and then start their own company and use everything they were using while working for me. I get that, but i was so looking forward to this game True Action MMO with open world not just instances. Truly sad day for me! What do we have to wait on now, the only game i saw with OPEN WORLD ACTION was Warhammer 40K but thats atleast 1to2 of being out!! SO ILL GO CRY IN MY CAVE :"(((((((
Thats all bullshit.
I heard from a guy that tera was looking better than gw2 especialy in graphics.
So this is clearly a fear from nc soft about their product gw2.
Im not against gw2 but i will not be surprised if gw 2 is nother crap on the list.
Many of us never tried tera nor gw 2 so we dont know witch one will be better.
This one in addition to the words of the guy at gamescom or e3 i dont remember exactly make suspicious of a gw2 fail.
Ncsoft is jsut acting like any mf publisher on this planet.Intimidate people for their own good.
If thats the case i dont want to hear anything from this stupid ncsoft and their fake stupid plans to ruin other companies for their pockets.i hope they fail in all their career.
FFXIV didn't tank cause of bad graphics, it tanked cause it was a bad game at its core,
Usually the US doesnt't convict people over and over again for the same crime.
Also anyone can start a game company regardless if somone worked for one previously. NCSoft has to be able to prove that exact items in TERA were copyrighted, which may be hard since they never released any working models of the L3 game. Also the court may decide to dismiss the claim without prejudice until the suit in SK is done. Normally it takes years to stop somone on infringment i mean look at megavideo it took them 3 years to shut down that site and it had known sex offender material.
and.this couldn't come at a worst timing, abt 2 more mths till it release, I wouldn't wana having spend the money to buy the game and paying for subs, and few mths down the road bring close down. -.-
RIP Orc Choppa
I would imagine some of the people at En Masse Entertainment are pissed as all hell at this.
Would suck to spend so much time localizing a game and then have NCsoft do a douchebag move like this now.
Sounds like whatever evidence NcSoft had for the past charges was a bit sketchy. First charges, "convictions mostly upheld." Later charges set aside on appeal, with the issue still up in the air nearly a year and a half latter.
Also may not look good that they waited so long to issue a challenge in the US courts, and its questionable what grounds they have for any US granted injunction considering that they can't get their own government to conclusively decide if Blue Hole has to shut down.
However I don't think NcSoft is trying to shut down or prevent the launch of the game, rather the big company is throwing around its weight to force a smaller developer share the pie. Unfortunately Blue Hole may have to cut NcSoft in to avoid possibly bankrupting legal fees.
Or in fact that they stolen from and have a valid issue with that...
Maybe Bluehole shouldn't have founded their entire plan on the gamble that theft was a good thing?
Reallly.... no.
Tera looks good, no doubt, but it is 100% niche product.
GW2 is 100% mainstream.
Maybe they just have a problem with thieves making use of their stuff?
We'll I'm pretty sure the courts of the US only have jurisdiction inside the US. And until recently there was no firm release set for the game in the US. Therefore NCSoft could not file a lawsuit against them in the US court system pretaining to these issues. I'm not trying to say either side is right or wrong in this case, just that the timing of the lawsuit isn't an issue here.
Note that the suit seeks temporary and permanent injunctions blocking the release of TERA in the U.S., as well as enhanced damages for Bluehole's alleged misconduct. Even if they don't win the permanent injunction initially (due to many factors that may come into play) they may still win a temporary injunction in the meantime, which may translate into months or even years of delaying the game's launch. Some things to take into consideration is that appeals of both the criminal and civil cases are currently pending before Korea's highest court. And obviously how Korean courts and American courts operate are quite different in how cases are handled.
It seems NCSoft must of done their research bringing in some big guns if they are using Ropes & Gray to represent them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ropes_%26_Gray
This is just a snippet from them. The firm is cited as among the country’s best in 38 categories with 16 practice areas ranked in the top band, including antitrust, banking & finance, bankruptcy/restructuring, corporate/M&A, employee benefits & executive compensation, health care, hedge & mutual funds, intellectual property, intellectual property: patent, investment funds: registered funds, labor & employment, life sciences, litigation: general commercial, private equity: buyouts, private equity: fund formation and tax.
Complaint can be found here:
http://www.tsi.brooklaw.edu/sites/tsi.brooklaw.edu/files/filings/ncsoft-corporation-et-al-v-bluehole-studio-inc-et-al/20120109ncsoft-corporation-et-al-v-bluehole-studio-inc-et-alcomplaint.pdf
http://tsi.brooklaw.edu/sites/tsi.brooklaw.edu/files/filings/ncsoft-corporation-et-al-v-bluehole-studio-inc-et-al/20120109ncsoft-corporation-et-al-v-bluehole-studio-inc-et-alcomplaint.pdf
Some of it is grasping at straws, but there is some stuff there to consider.
Sounds like they weren't able to get an injunction against the Korean version because it wasn't released yet, so the court couldn't rule on copy right issues within the game. Also the language in the lawsuit suggests that the appealed conviction isn't actually pending, but essentially stuck in limbo due to some Korean pendency mumbo jumbo. Same issue apparently prevents them from now filing a charge against the Korean version of the game.
Some of the more entertaining positions-
Look at the race comparison chart; some of the comparisons are a bit of a stretch.
They also present comments from testers saying that the game reminds them of Lineage, or is as fun as lineage, as evidence
Verdict-
I think NcSoft has a long ways to go to set up their case. For one they'll need to present their Lineage 3 data and establish what was actually developed at the time information was allegedly stolen. I still think if they were more certain of their case, or actually intended to kill the game, that they would have acted sooner. Enough data was present from play tests at conventions and on their website to set up their case. This is simply a case of revenge and wanting a piece of the pie.
Heh.. so you're saying that NCSOFT is suing TERA because of THE GRAPHICS?... come on..
I think GW2 looks nicer actually... and I seriously doubt that TERA is any competition considering that GW2 is by miles a more complete game.
I'd like to try both games for different reasons.
And as for GW2 failing... dude.. it's allready been hyped into oblivion with not a single advertisment by NCSOFT.. just by players that have seen it/ played it..... though you mention that someone who played it said it would fail?... EVERYONE I've read who has played it has been positive.. I'd really like to see where you found this negative playtesting comment
..Cake..
Um...that's exactly what he just said.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Well, looks like EME shouldn't have taken so long, huh? lol TERA is just a doomed game.
Does seem to be about time to stick a fork in it (sad as that is).
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.