Zynga settles Mafia Wars dispute with Digital Chocolate
Third Mob Wars copyright infringement case put to bed
Social game titan Zynga has reached an out-of-court settlement with Trip Hawkins' Digital Chocolate, regarding a copyright dispute over the game Mafia Wars.
Digital Chocolate sued Zynga last August, claiming that the latter's 2008 Facebook game Mafia Wars infringed upon its 2004 mobile game of the same name. Despite Digital Chocolate claiming to have a wholly-owned trademark for the name, Zynga sought to register 'Mafia Wars' at the US patent office.
Terms of the settlement were not revealed, according to legal site The Recorder.
In 2009, Zynga made another settlement of undisclosed size regarding Mafia Wars, this time to Mob Wars creator David Maestri, who had alleged strong similarities between the two games.
In addition, last year Zynga accused Disney firm Playdom of copyright infringement regarding Mafia Wars, for its title Mobsters. This was part of a wider case involving alleged theft of trade secrets by ex-Zynga employees who had move to Playdom. This too was settled out of court.