Zynga has been hit with yet another lawsuit for practices in-game. The company has been sued by Texas-based developer Agincourt Games for allegedly using a ‘prize redemption system’ that was first patented by the company in 1996.
Agincourt specifically states that Zynga is breaking two patents - a patent on a “Prize Redemption System for Games Executed over a Wide Area Network" and a "Graphical User Interface for Providing Gaming and Prize Redemption Capabilities." The first patent was filed in 1999, but served as a continuation for a 1996 patent.
The complaint from Agincourt alleges that "Zynga's remarkable growth has not been driven by its own ingenuity or innovations. Rather, it has been widely reported that Zynga's business model is to copy creative ideas and designs from other game developers and then use its market power to bulldoze the games' originators."
"Consistent with this reported strategy, Zynga also has violated Agincourt Gaming's intellectual property rights by infringing the '755 patent and the '035 patent."
Zynga’s library of games, from FarmVille to Mafia Wars, all utilize a system in which in-game rewards are purchased by in-game currency. The company is not the only firm to utilize such a system, but Agincourt might very well be targeting the company for the immense growth it has seen these few years on Facebook.
Agincourt is looking to block Zynga completely, hoping to gain a permanent injunction on Zynga and all of the companies’ games. The firm is also seeking damages for the patent infringement.
