For all of the allegations lobbed their ways about cloning and copying, Zynga sure knows how to be protective when it comes to their own material.  Take the ‘Ville branding, for example.  You can dispute and debate all you want when it comes to how many “influences” went in to making games like FarmVille and CityVille – but there’s no questioning that the ‘Ville branding is distinctly Zynga’s own.  

Hearing someone call Zynga a copycat is old news. Whether or not Zynga “draws inspiration” or “flat-out rips off” from other popular titles has been a debate for years. For the first time, however, Zynga appears to have an opponent with the financial capital to challenge the social games giant in a court of law. That opponent goes by the name of EA, and they’ve officially sued Zynga and The Ville for copyright infringement.  

You’ve visited FarmVille, and you’ve built a thing or two in CityVille. Think you might want to strip down to your loincloth and visit PyramidVille? Whoa, a word of warning. If you play PyramidVille on Facebook or mobile, you are exiting Zynga’s territory and entering a digital country that’s actually owned by French studio Kobojo. If you’re confused, that’s understandable: PyramidVille looks quite a bit like Zynga’s handiwork, to say nothing of its name, which is why Zynga is taking Kobojo to court.

Because it wouldn’t be a regular week in Silicon Valley without someone suing someone else we’ve just learned that a company called GameTek LLC has filed suit against a number of major social gaming publishers and platforms over US Patent # 7076445: “System and methods for obtaining advantages and transacting the same in a computer gaming environment.” The lawsuit names 21 companies as defendants, including EA, Zynga, Facebook and Funzio.

With the rampant plagiarism that goes on in game development, something like this was bound to happen sooner or later. David Edery, CEO of Spry Fox, has just confirmed on his blog that his company has filed a copyright infringement suit against 6Waves LOLAPPS in regards to the latter’s release of Yeti Town, a game that clearly borrowed everything that was original about Spry Fox’s Triple Town, slapped on a fresh coat of paint, and made it to the App Store first.