A Genshin Impact cheater has been forced to pay a massive CAD$1.5 million in damages following a copyright infringement lawsuit initiated by game publisher COGNOSPHERE (doing business as HoYoverse). The individual, Joaquin Soriano, is named as a lead developer of the Genshin Impact cheat tools.
Alongside others, he provided it at no cost or for a subscription fee for more advanced features. These cheats removed cooldowns for skills and granted unlimited stamina, teleportation, and invincibility.
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COGNOSPHERE initially only sought CAD$50,000, but the judge instead ordered Soriano to pay CAD$1.5 million (Canadian dollars, approximately USD$1.05 million) to serve as a deterrent. Soriano is also barred from further infringement following multiple attempts to force him to stop before the lawsuit.
Law firm DLA Piper represented COGNOSPHERE. “Game developers and publishers work hard to make online games safe, fun, and rewarding experiences for those who play by the rules,” said Ryan Black, Global Pillar Co-Lead for DLA Piper’s Video Games and Interactive Entertainment practice. DLA’s Bentley Gaikis added, “We are glad to demonstrate the legal mechanisms available to stop those who damage games by breaking gameplay through infringement.” DLA’s full release is here.
Group Behind Genshin Impact Cheats Were Warned Multiple Times
In February this year, Torrent Freak reported that Soriano (online handle: Taiga) was part of at least two Genshin Impact cheat groups: Akebi Group and Crepe Team. After COGNOSPHERE filed a DMCA takedown against one of their public GitHub cheat repositories in November 2022, he made the repo private for the latest versions but continued to develop it. COGNOSPHERE then alleged that after its cease-and-desist in March 2023, where Taiga admitted wrongdoing, he continued developing the Genshin Impact cheats, leading to the lawsuit.
COGNOSPHERE is a Singaporean company established by HoYoverse (miHoYo) for the purpose of publishing games on the global market. Besides Singapore, it has branches in Montreal, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Seoul. Their published works include Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and its latest Zenless Zone Zero.
Source: DLA Piper, via Automaton, Torrent Freak
© COGNOSPHERE
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