Peak Games and Hasbro settle mobile game copyright dispute

Peak Games and Hasbro, the creator of “My Little Pony”, have reached an out-of-court settlement over their copyright infringement case surrounding a mobile phone game.

The order of dismissal was delivered by the US District Court for the Northern District of California San Jose Division on Wednesday, May 24.

The initial claim, which was filed in October 2016, alleged that Hasbro’s “My Little Pony: Puzzle Party” game had “trampled” on Peak’s IP rights for its “Toy Blast” puzzle app.

“Aware of Toy Blast’s success, Hasbro and its 70%-owned game studio, Backflip Studios, set out to develop a clone, which they attempted to conceal by cloaking it under Hasbro’s My Little Pony brand,” said the claim.

Toy Blast, described as a “collapse” puzzle game, features stacks of coloured cubes and obstacles which users have to match up in order for them to collapse, similar to the popular “Candy Crush” model.

Hasbro’s version is of a similar format to Toy Blast and is described on various app stores as “matching gameplay you love with a splash of adventure”.

The dismissal order said: “The parties request that this court dismiss with prejudice all claims in this action.”

It added that the “parties further stipulate to and respectfully request the continuing jurisdiction of this court for the purposes of interpreting or enforcing their settlement agreement”.

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