WinZo, one of India’s vernacular gaming platform, is taking rival gaming platform Mobile Premier League (MPL) to court. WinZo has filed a lawsuit in Delhi High Court against gaming unicorn MPL over alleged copyright violation. In a statement, Winzo said that the matter is now listed for further proceedings on July 4.
Winzo claims that MPL copied its patented proprietary game ‘World War’. The lawsuit claims that MPL’s game also follows identical format as World War. Winzo further says that MPL took down the format completely from their platform on March 28 after it was brought to their notice. However, in a complete volte face, MPL allegedly re-commenced using the entire identical format with each of the distinctive features in use by WinZo, by April 2. This time, while MPL is said to have renamed their tournament as ‘Team Clash’, but the notifications/pop-ups sent to users still used ‘World War’.
WinZo sent a legal notice to MPL and when MPL refused to cease and desist from taking down the format, WinZo was forced to file a suit seeking injunction to restrain MPL from continuing to use the format on account of copyright infringement, passing off and unfair competition.
After the matter was heard at some length, MPL’s counsel stated that the MPL has stopped using the mark World War and was willing to give an undertaking that the mark World War shall not be used with the Defendant’s game/ offering. Concerning the other allegations made by WinZo, MPL’s Counsel made a statement that MPL shall attempt to resolve the matter through negotiations with WinZo.
The matter is now listed for further proceedings on the July 4.
Winzo says that commencing in April 2020, the game currently has close to 80 million registered users. The company has applied for a patent for the invention, copyright registration in relation to the expression of the Format, and trademark for ‘World War’.
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