The animosity between Zynga and Playdom started earlier this year with what the former said were "misleading ads." Things became much more serious today as Tech Crunch reported that Zynga sued Playdom and four ex-Zynga employees now at Playdom for misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, and unfair competition among other charges.
The crux of the matter is a "how-to" document for creating social games called the Zynga Playbook. The former Zynga employees are accused of illegally taking 70 proprietary documents, including the Zynga Playbook, two weeks before joining Playdom. A judge has already complied with a restraining order request against Playdom and the former employees, prohibiting them from destroying the files in question.
