Asia Tech Wire (Apr 2) -- California-based League of Legends developer Riot Games and ByteDance's gaming unit Moonton have reached a global settlement over their intellectual property disputes.

After several rounds of communication, the two sides recently signed a settlement agreement, and Riot has decided to formally dismiss all relevant lawsuits.

The two sides had a long history of litigation over whether Moonton's game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was a copycat of League.

After Moonton launched the game in 2016, it became one of the most popular titles in several major markets in Southeast Asia within a few years.

In 2017, Tencent-owned Riot had sued Moonton for copyright infringement in a U.S. court, but the court subsequently dismissed its claim.

Riot filed another lawsuit against Moonton in the U.S. in May 2022 for alleged intellectual property infringement, which a California court again dismissed.

And in October 2022, a Chinese court ruled in Moonton's favor in a commercial defamation case, ordering Tencent to pay 220,000 yuan ($30,411) in damages.

Moonton claimed at the time that Tencent fabricated and disseminated false information to its partner in Indonesia, RevivaLTV, hindering its cooperation with the partner.

Founded in 2014, Moonton was acquired by TikTok owner ByteDance in March 2021 for $4 billion.

When ByteDance downsized its video game business earlier, there were rumors that it was looking to sell Moonton for no less than $5 billion, but struggled to find a buyer.

For now, Moonton remains a wholly-owned subsidiary of ByteDance.

The settlement comes as ByteDance sold two of its game projects, codenamed S1 and J5, to Tencent.

(US$1 = 7.2343 yuan)