Riot Games' Lawsuit Against Moonton Technology Thrown Out by Court

A California court has rejected Riot Games' latest lawsuit against Moonton Technology, a Shanghai-based game developer, citing China as a more suitable venue for the dispute. The lawsuit, filed in May, accused Moonton of copying League of Legends in its game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. In a ruling on Tuesday, Judge Michael Fitzgerald of the US District Court for the Central District of California granted Moonton's motion to dismiss, stating that the case should be heard in China. This outcome mirrors a similar lawsuit in 2017, in which the court also decided that China was a more appropriate forum. Notably, Riot Games is owned by Tencent, a Chinese tech giant, while Moonton is part of ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, also based in China. In his ruling, Judge Fitzgerald expressed skepticism that circumstances had changed significantly since the 2017 lawsuit, suggesting that Riot Games may be seeking a second opportunity to litigate the case, unsatisfied with the progress of parallel litigation in China.