Krafton to sue Apple, Google over PUBG Mobile copyright infringement in Free Fire
Krafton, the maker of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), has sued Garena over several copyright violations. The Korean company filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles Federal court against the Singaporean organization.
It alleged that Garena copied many of PUBG's copyright features, including its structure, pre-game waiting lobby area, jumping from the plane, in-game items, equipment, play maps, as well as locations. The charge is against Garena's two battle royale games, Free Fire and Free Fire Max.
Apart from that, they sued Apple and Google for not stopping the sales and hosting these Garena titles in their respective stores. YouTube, the video hosting service, was also accused of hosting Free Fire gameplay videos.
Before filing the lawsuit, the Bundang-gu, Seongnam, South Korean-based firm asked Garena to stop selling Free Fire and Free Fire Max in December, but the latter refused.
Similarly, Krafton requested Apple and Google to cease distribution of both titles, but to no avail. In addition, they asked YouTube to take down numerous posts that featured both titles, but they also did not comply.
The developer's lawsuit said:
This is not the first time Krafton has taken Garena to court. In 2017, they accused the latter of plagiarism, and it was resolved in a Singapore court, although there was no licensing agreement.
The company also asked the federal court for damages that included Garena's profits from Free Fire sales and its request to block sales of both the titles.
The lawsuit added:
PUBG PC was launched in 2017, and it instantly became a hit. A few months after, Garena released Free Fire for mobiles, and it was allegedly similar to PUBG.
In 2018, Tencent and Krafton released PUBG for mobiles. Both Free Fire and PUBG Mobile
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