South Korea’s Supreme Court upholds trade secret ruling in Dark and Darker case

Dark and Darker’s long-running legal fight between Nexon and Ironmace has reached a final decision in South Korea’s civil courts. The Supreme Court dismissed appeals from both sides and left the earlier ruling in place, which means Nexon’s trade secret claim stands and Ironmace, along with individual defendants tied to the case, must pay 5.7 billion won, or about $3.8 million, in damages.

The ruling does not find Dark and Darker to be a case of direct copyright infringement. Earlier courts had already said there wasn’t enough similarity in expression between Nexon’s internal P3 project and the released game to make that call. What the courts did accept, and what the Supreme Court has now finalized, is that Nexon’s source code and build files from P3 counted as trade secrets and were infringed.

That distinction matters because it means the civil case ends with a win for Nexon on trade secrets, but not on the broader claim that Dark and Darker itself copied P3 in a copyright sense. It also means the game isn’t being shut down as part of this ruling. According to statements cited in the report, there’s no order stopping service, and Ironmace says it will keep Dark and Darker running.

Both sides are now turning their attention to the criminal case, which is still ongoing. Nexon said the civil ruling reinforces its position and expects the trade secret issue to carry weight there as well. Ironmace, meanwhile, said it still disagrees with the trade secret finding and plans to keep fighting the criminal charges, while pointing to the copyright portion of the case as an important result in its favor.

For players, the immediate takeaway is pretty simple: Dark and Darker remains online, but the broader dispute between the studios isn’t fully over yet.