So last month Vostu filed a response to Zynga’s lawsuit. That response also brings up another defense – that the lawsuit is retribution by Zynga over a failed attempt by Zynga to create a “strategic relationship” with Vostu. That should have been the end of the news cycle for a while – U.S. courts never really decide anything, so a year could go by before we heard about this case again.
Everything above is standard lawsuit behavior. But Zynga’s next move was a good one. They filed another lawsuit, this time on Vostu’s home court – Brazil. They also sued Google for distributing the games (notably they did not sue Facebook, their golden goose). A Brazilian judge quickly granted Zynga’s request for an injunction. Vostu had to shut down its games in 48 hours.
For all the hype it has gotten and all the users it has gained, it’s easy to forget that Google+ has only been out for a month and a half. But they’re moving fast to ensure they don’t flop again in the social space. And today brings the biggest “next step” yet: Games.
Gaming has obviously been a huge part of the success of Facebook over the years. It has been so popular, in fact, that one company, Zynga, has become a major player in the gaming space, and will soon go public as a result. And guess who is on board with Google+ Games too? Yep. Zynga.
‘Inventors’ Claim FarmVille And Other Zynga Games Infringe On Patent | TechCrunch:
Zynga has been slapped with patent lawsuit from a Segan LLC, which alleges that the social gaming giant has infringed on a patent titled “System for Viewing Content Over A Network and Method Thenrfor.” You can access the complaint here.
According to the document, the technology was developed and patented by Marc Segan and Gene Lewin in 2006 for a system and method for viewing content over the Internet wherein a user accesses a service provider server to view a character icon provided by the service provider to a user interface device.
