Bungie was served a bit of a loss this week in its ongoing legal war against scammers and sellers. On Wednesday, a federal judge rejected Bungie’s claim of copyright infringement against the AimJunkies website, while agreeing with the cheat seller’s legal defense that Fate the publisher’s other, non-trademark claims should skip the court and be settled through arbitration. However, this is not the end of the matter.
As reported by TorrentFreakU.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly has sided with AimJunkies and its legal team and rejected Bungie’s claims of copyright infringement towards the side after Fate maker failed to show that AimJunkies had actually copied anything.
“It is noteworthy that Bungie has not relied on any facts explaining how the fraudulent software constitutes an unauthorized copy of any of the copyrighted works identified in the complaint,” Judge Zilly wrote. “Bungie’s complaint must contain more than a ‘formal recitation of the elements of a case.’
Bungie is allowed to correct his copyright claim and add more evidence, but at least so far the judge has rejected it completely.
Read more: Riot And Bungie Go After Valorant And Fate 2 Cheating sellers in joint lawsuit
Judge Zilly similarly agreed with AimJunkies regarding many other allegations in Bungie’s lawsuit regarding breach of contract, harmful interference and unfair enrichment. The judge referred all non-trademark claims to arbitration, which is consistent Bungie’s own licensing agreement. This agreement explained that apart from copyright disputes and trademarks, all other legal disputes were to be resolved by mandatory arbitration. Last year, AimJunkies argued against much of Bungie’s lawsuit, pointing to the agreement’s mandatory arbitration clause as part of its defense. Now it appears that Judge Zilly is on the side of the cheating sellers, proposing that both parties find a solution to the non-trademark and copyright disputes out of court.
Kotaku contacted Bungie about the recent layoffs and Judge Zilly’s decisions.
But while AimJunkies may be happy with these decisions and layoffs, the case is not over. Bungie’s allegations that the site violated trademark laws were left intact, with the judge agreeing that Bungie’s other allegations are “adequately stated” and that the case may proceed based on the remaining allegations. These other allegations include trademark infringement and false claims.
AimJunkies has reportedly told TorrentFreak that it does not comment on the matter yet. However, the owner of the site explained that they are in the final stages of selling the company to a group of investors in Ukraine.