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Dark and Darker Lawsuit: What Nexon and Ironmace’s Final Civil Ruling Decided

Nexon’s U.S. case was dismissed on forum grounds, but the Korean civil case ended with affirmed trade-secret liability and damages—and no copyright liability.
Length2 min Posted Quest giverVGSources Team
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Yes—Nexon sued Ironmace over Dark and Darker, alleging the game used confidential information from its Project P3. As of October 5, 2026, the Korean civil case has a final result: South Korea’s Supreme Court affirmed Ironmace’s trade-secret liability and damages of 5.76 billion won, but Nexon’s copyright claim was rejected. An earlier U.S. dismissal sent the dispute toward South Korea; it did not decide whether the allegations were true.

What was Nexon’s lawsuit about?

Nexon alleged that former employees took confidential Project P3 materials and that Ironmace used that information while developing Dark and Darker. Ironmace denied the allegations described in the U.S. court record. Those statements describe the parties’ positions; the eventual Korean civil judgment produced separate outcomes on trade-secret and copyright claims.

What happened in the U.S. case?

Nexon brought a federal lawsuit against Ironmace and individuals in Washington. In August 2023, the district court dismissed the complaint without prejudice on forum non conveniens grounds, directing the dispute toward South Korea. That was a ruling about where the case should proceed, not a decision on whether the alleged copying occurred. The Ninth Circuit’s July 2024 opinion documents the U.S. appeal.

What did South Korea’s final civil ruling decide?

On April 30, 2026, South Korea’s Supreme Court affirmed the trade-secret infringement finding and a damages award of 5,764,640,000 won. Yonhap reported the same-day result and amount. The Court did not find Ironmace liable for copyright infringement: Nexon’s copyright claim was rejected.

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Issue Final civil outcome
Trade-secret infringement Liability and damages affirmed by the Supreme Court on April 30, 2026; 5,764,640,000 won.
Copyright infringement Nexon’s claim rejected.

That split matters: the result was not a finding that every allegation succeeded, nor that the game was cleared of all legal concerns. The final civil judgment affirmed liability on the trade-secret theory while rejecting the copyright theory.

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Is the Nexon–Ironmace lawsuit over?

The Korean civil dispute has reached a final Supreme Court outcome. A separate criminal matter should not be conflated with that civil appeal. A May 2026 report described the criminal matter as ongoing, and its status as of October 5, 2026 is not established by the available reporting. The civil judgment does not establish that the criminal matter has concluded or that criminal guilt has been finally determined.

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