NCSoft Sues Business Partner Netmarble For Copyright Infringement
Last year, NCSoft and Netmarble joined forces to keep NCSoft from being taken over by Nexon. At the time, the companies had already been working together on Lineage 2: Revolution, Netmarble's upcoming mobile Lineage 2 spin-off.
According to MMOCulture, NCSoft recently filed a lawsuit against Netmarble for infringing on that exact IP with their recently-released open world mobile MMORPG Aden. The infringements in specific include the use of the name "Aden," a well-known location in Lineage 2, as well as several item names and phrases that can be found in both titles.
Netmarble is defending itself by saying that Aden is a mobile game, not a PC game, and thus infringement could not have occurred. It remains to be seen how this will play out or whether it will affect the companies' business partnership.