Despite being cleared by audits, the Dark and Darker devs are still being sued by Nexon.

Dark and Darker developer Irongate is now being sued by Nexon over copyright infringement claims. This is the latest in a series of attacks by Nexon against Irongate that ranges from a DMCA takedown of Dark and Darker back in March, to countless allegations, and even asset audits that showed no content was stolen from Nexon.

Eurogamer has the initial reporting on this one. The lawsuit was officially filed on Friday, April 14 in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington. According to Eurogamer's report, Nexon's suit claims that there are a number of similarities between their own in-development game P3 and Dark and Darker. They also claim that some of Irongate's employees, those who previously worked for Nexon, had signed a one-year non-compete clause that prevented them from taking "trade secrets" from Nexon.

In the lawsuit, Nexon states its former employees (specifically naming Ju-Hyun Choi and Terence Seungha Park) would have signed a "one-year-non-compete clause" as part of their Employee Agreement with the company. This clause "prevents employees from working in the same line of business that could potentially infringe on Nexon's trade secrets, without Nexon's prior consent" (thanks, Onepeg).

Nexon's lawsuit also includes images of both P3 and Dark and Darker, with Nexon claiming Ironmace copied in-game actions such as characters "[moving] their hands in a distinctive circular motion over chests without physically touching the chest" to open said chests".​

Another example Nexon gives is the illuminated potions worn around characters' waists in both P3 and Dark and Darker, which you can see below.

Image showing similarities between Nexon's P3 and Ironmace's Dark and Darker with how characters in both games hold similar looking potions.
Nexon is pushing for Ironmace to stop development on Dark and Darker. They are also seeking payment for damages incurred. They are specifically seeking "monetary relief including damages sustained by [Nexon] in an amount not yet determined... [including] costs of suit and attorney's fees" and "further relief as this Court may deem just and appropriate."

The lawsuit also says that "condoning the Defendants' conduct would threaten Nexon, the video game industry, and all of the consumers who enjoy playing sophisticated video games." It continues on with, "video game developers would not be able to invest years' worth of person-hours in developing video games if their employees could simply transfer their employer's project files to their own personal servers and start a new company."

Throughout this entire ordeal, Ironmace has denied any wrongdoing. The studio even held a new playtest for Dark and Darker this past weekend. This latest build of the game was shared through a torrent due to Nexon's DMCA takedown of the game from Steam. At the time of this past weekend's test, Ironmace said that they "are working around the clock to safeguard the continuance of Dark and Darker."