Social games company Zynga has found itself back in court, but this time it is the one on the receiving end of a lawsuit. Personalized Media Communications has filed a lawsuit against the CityVille maker in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, claiming that it has infringed on four of its patents.
The company alleges that three of the company's games - Words with Friends, CityVille and Farmville - use PMC's technology. That technology is detailed in four patents that PMC owns - numbers 7,797,717, 7,908,638, 7,734,251 and 7,860,131. These patents cover "the use of control and information signals embedded in electronic media content to generate output for display that is personalized and relevant to a user." The patents also cover "controlled access of media content, personalized content based on individual attributes, management of downloading technologies, network management, control of targeted advertising, and purchase of media and other products," according to a report from Gamasutra.
"Many years of time and labor went into developing our inventions and securing the patents that permit their practice," said Personalized Media Communications founder John C. Harvey. "It wouldn?t be right to sit by and allow them to be infringed."
It seems odd that this company would target Zynga, given that the patents are pretty vague and could be used against a number of technology companies and software developers. Perhaps this lawsuit is a test run to see?if the company can extract some cash from the billion dollar social games maker.
We will continue to follow this story as it develops.
Source: Gamasutra
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