Farmville Maker Zynga Sued Over Patent Infringement
Claiming patent infringement, Agincourt Gaming is seeking monetary damages and asking the court to shut down twelve Zyngas games... including Farmville.
History books – if they haven't already – will probably label the 1980s as the "Music Video Era" followed with naming the '90s as the "Dawn of the Common Internet." For the 2000s? That will probably be labeled something like the "Dawn of the App" whereas our current decade, the 2010s, will surely go down in history as the "Age of Patent Infringement Lawsuits." Disagree? Just look at the headlines each week.
Here's one fine example: while Markus "Notch" Persson is currently offering to settle a dispute with Bethesda outside the court system (in a game of Quake 3 Arena no less), Pantheon developer Agincourt Gaming has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Farmville developer (and Facebook sidekick) Zynga. Both of these headlines, probably out of many, appeared just on Wednesday alone.
While the "Scrolls" subject was covered in another post, the complaint against Zynga was filed earlier today in U.S. District Court in Delaware. According to Reuters, Texas-based Agincourt Gaming claims that it "owns foundational patents that claim priority back to 1996 and cover the processes for credits-based online gaming and a prize redemption system based on the outcome of game play."
The lawsuit alleges that twelve Zynga games violate its patents including FarmVille, Mafia Wars, FishVille, and Zynga Poker. According to a recent filing by Zynga with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company's internal valuation is currently at $11 billion. Agincourt Games alleges that Zynga's rapid growth isn't driven by its own ingenuity.
"Rather it has been widely reported that Zynga's business model is to copy creative ideas and game designs from other game developers and then use its market power to bulldoze the games' originators," the complaint reads. "Consistent with this reported copycat business strategy, Zynga has also violated Agincourt Gaming's intellectual property rights."
Ouch.
In addition to the financial damages, Agincourt Gaming is requesting that Zynga shut down the twelve games listed in the lawsuit. As of this writing, Zynga has not responded to the lawsuit.
The case is Agincourt Gaming LLC v Zynga Inc, U.S. District Court, Delaware, No. 11-0072O.
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Oh for gods sake... This constant "Let's sue everyone" thing is really starting to become stupid
i need to jump on this bandwagon.
Jesus, even the name of the company has "court" in it.
Software patents are bad. This lawsuit is crap
I know it's getting boring... why are companies and corporations so whiny nowaday's, what happened to just adapting to the competition?
Maybe I just wasn't aware of most of the past lawsuits before Apple owned rights to the rectangle.
"even the name of the company has "court" in it"
It's a historical name related to the 100 years war, and to a french city of Azincourt nothing to do with the judical courts.
For the first time I am happy to read an article for license infringement lawsuit.
They will Age-in-court.
I'm going to sue every pen maker out there for patent infringement because I have created a pen that allows writers to write in curves and all of them are coping my idea which was patented during 100 B.C.
Imaging going to a fair and every vender is suing the other for give out prizes to winners.
Hey you can't copy my "you get a price if you win" idea, I'm going to SSSSUUUUEEEE joo!!!!
No it's my idea, I'm going to sue you!
3rd vendor yelling from inside Honey Bucket, I'm suing the both of yA!!!!!!
should say copying no coping
check out www.microsoft.com
thats be broken for about an hour now lol .
Let's look on the bright side here... Maybe Farmville will go away?
=P
Maybe I should sue these spammers for "distress" and "emotional damage"
Maybe I should sue these spammers for "distress" and "emotional damage"
Or maybe sue the internet as a whole?
companies that can't make their ideas materialize into concrete products just patent them. then they wait for some other guys to make vaguely similar products and sue them. in the end, everybody just sits down thinking about anything and patent them. nobody will produce anything because everything is patented.
Waaa, waaa, we weren't competent enough to make our game popular, so we'll try and make money any way we can.
if the US wasnt such constitution wussies they could make a law that allows judges to be allowed to judge by common sense. All these companies go to court claiming emotional damage and after watching a company grow with its own patents sueing for damages. The judges know these lawyers think theyre stupid, and they cant do anything about it. I dont really like zynga, but I hate even more these stupid lawsuits.
...so they claim to own the idea of using virtual money in a virtual world? Isn't there supposed to be some rule against patenting obvious things?
So if somebody makes a bad driving game, EA can sue them?
So if somebody makes a bad driving game, EA can sue them?
How can you patent giving prizes for something? That's a pretty old concept, and so are "credits".
I think the Chinese should sue EA, Zynga, Blizzard and tons of other game studios for stealing their idea of selling virtual goods for real money.
Oh yaa keep on suing. Make us proud! Please sue me for using oxygen too.
I like Zynga being sued
what the heck does that mean?
I need to copyright the names "PS4" and "Xbox 720" if not yet copyrighted and claim they are for hardware based on a console I am developing and sue MS and Sony over it when they release their products.....
The American Dream can be yours!.....If you can afford a good lawyer of course!
Screw it, I'm gonna patent breathing
Well, well, well... that explains why Zynga customer service is as pathetic as it is, and why they cannot keep their games running well. Freikin' thieves.
Frankly I don't like Zynga but Agincourt sounds like it has nothing to back it up.
Company with no substantial product patents a vague idea, sues the bejeebus out of everyone else in their field when patent is granted.
Sadly i've seen this pattern too much lately. And i don't like it. Patents were made to promote and protect innovation, not the other way around. The US patent system is extremely outdated and it should be rewritten ASAP.
I don't play any of Zynga's games, but honestly, this is absolute BS. Seriously, while they're at it, why don't they sue just about every MMO developer/publisher in existence because most of them offer a similar system. What is the world coming to...
I enjoyed playing Farmville,when arthritis kept me in my chair.Sadly it no longer works.I spend hours just trying to call up the farm but I can't get it.Is this caused by some selfish company,interfering with my fun? Lets sue them!