Legal Niches

Zynga, Digital Chocolate Go to the Mattresses Over Mafia Wars Name

By pete_gallagher

Following threats from the city of San Francisco earlier this week over an 'illegal and actionable' Mafia Wars II marketing stunt which littered the streets of that city, a bad stretch continues to get worse for social game maker Zynga.

Venture Beat reports that Zynga is now the target of a trademark suit from mobile game developer Digital Chocolate. The Trip Hawkins-helmed company claims that it owns the exclusive rights to the name Mafia Wars and that it notified Zynga of the infringement last year, after which it was informed by Zynga that it would stop using the name.

Zynga, responding to the lawsuit, stated, 'We are surprised and disappointed by Digital Chocolate's lawsuit. The timing of the action appears to be opportunistic, and we plan to defend ourselves vigorously.'

Digital Chocolate used the Mafia Wars name for a mobile game, which VB writes, 'wasn't very popular.

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on August 25, 2010 (boomark / email).