Riot Games, the developers of ever-popular League of Legends, have now been implicated in another lawsuit - this time of their own making. The company is now suing Riot Squad, an esports organisation, for copyright infringement over the word ‘Riot’.
According to the lawsuit, Riot Squad has made Riot Games suffer “great and irreparable damage and injury,” and Riot Games now asks the Court of Law to put a stop to it.
The lawsuit says that the esports team, Riot Squad, has “unfairly and unlawfully adopted and exploited the Riot brand name in connection with its marketing, advertising, and promotion.” The claim has been made on the basis of both companies being involved with the same type of business, and Riot Games also claims that Squad’s mission statement (by gamers, for gamers) is far too similar to that of their own.
To that end, Riot Games now asks for both compensatory and punitive damages to be reaffirmed by the court, and they claim that Riot Squad needs to surrender all profits derived from the use of their name, as well as reimburse lawsuit costs, and destroy any and all materials that may bear the IP in question.
According to sources, Riot Squad was formed earlier this year, making them a very young team on the scene. Time will tell how this situation is resolved.
