Social gaming platform WinZO files lawsuit against MPL for copyright infringement

Social gaming platform WinZO has filed a lawsuit in Delhi High Court against eSports and mobile gaming platform Mobile Premier League (MPL) citing copyright infringement and trademark infringement of its proprietary game format called ‘World War.’ WinZo has sought an injunction against MPL for the same. 

The case came up for hearing in front of Justice Navin Chawla on June 3, with the judge giving time to WinZO and MPL to work out a mutual settlement. The case is next scheduled for hearing on July 4. 

WinZO in its complaint stated that MPL had launched a game with a similar name as ‘World War’ in late March, 2022. Gaming unicorn MPL later changed the name to Team Clash though promotions by the esports platform continued to carry the tag of ‘World War.’ WinZO also stated that MPL had copied its proprietary game format.

Founded in 2018 by Saumya Singh Rathore and Paavan Nanda, WinZO is a casual gaming platform which hosts multiplayer game formats across 12 languages.

The platform allows users to interact with each other. The company had last raised $65 million in a Series C round of funding led by Griffin Gaming Partners. At the time, the platform claimed that its revenues had grown ten-fold over a period of 12 months. 

Cricketer Virat Kohli-backed esports platform MPL, founded in 2018 by Sai Srinivas Kiran G and Shubh Malhotra, was valued at $2.3 billion in its last funding round led by Legatum Capital in September, 2021.

The company started out as a real-money gaming platform for games of skill. It recently announced the launch of its own gaming studio, Mayhem Studios, to develop high quality mobile game titles.