据Gamasutra报道，《Millinaire City》游戏开发商Digital Chocolate公司去年8月因“Mafia Wars”商标侵权，起诉社交游戏开发商Zynga公司一事终于在日前得到解决。但颇为耐人寻味的是，双方并没有对外公布具体的调解情况，“Mafia Wars”这个名称仍然出现在Zynga的游戏中，并没有作出任何调整和改变。

Zynga-lawsuit

Digital Chocolate在去年的起诉书中指出，《Mafia Wars》是Digital Chocolate在2004年就已经发布的一款手机游戏，随后又在2009年发布了三个继集版本。该游戏第一个版本出炉时，Zynga还没有成立，而Zynga版本的《Mafia Wars》一直到2008年时才正式发布。据游戏邦了解，Digital Chocolate声称曾在2009年多次通知Zynga，要求对方停用“Mafia Wars”这个游戏名称。

该公司在提交给法院的文件中表示，Zynga损害了Digital Chocolate公司旗下的“Mafia Wars”商标权，甚至通过该商标进行大规模的市场推广活动，这是一种侵权行为。

游戏邦获悉，除了商标侵权外，Digital Chocolate对Zynga的指控还包括：不正当竞争行为、讹用原作名称、抢注域名等。尽管遭遇竞争对手的多种责难，这也已经不是Zynga第一回圈入法律纠纷，但Zynga目前似乎依旧毫发未损。

此事不禁让困惑：究竟是因为Zynga是身价数十亿美元的公司，所以很容易受到竞争对手的挤兑，成为法律纠纷的受害者？还是因为Zynga本身行为不当，所以才会牵涉其中？无论是哪一种情况，我们都不难看出，社交游戏公司之间的关系已经日趋紧张。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Mafia Wars: Zynga, Digital Chocolate finally settle trademark lawsuit

After Millionaire City creator Digital Chocolate filed suit against Zynga in Aug. 2010 for trademark infringement involving the Mafia Wars brand, the dispute has at last been settled, Gamasutra reports. However, the settlement amount nor the terms have been disclosed. Interestingly enough, the Mafia Wars name still appears to be under Zynga control as the game has yet to undergo any changes.

In the lawsuit filed last year, Digital Chocolate said it released a Mafia Wars mobile game way back in 2004 along with three sequels through 2009, according to Gamasutra. This was three years before Zynga came around and four before the company’s Mafia Wars was released. The company says it sent a notice to Zynga in 2009 demanding that it stop using the Mafia Wars moniker.

“Through duplicity and bad faith, Zynga has effectively hijacked the Mafia Wars mark from Digital Chocolate and is aggressively marketing its games under the Mafia Wars mark to Digital Chocolate’s substantial detriment,” said the firm in documents filed with California’s Northern District Court, according to Gamasutra.

Digital Chocolate hit Zynga with several charges including federal/common law trademark infringement, federal/state/common law unfair competition, false designation of origin, and cyber-squatting, Gamasutra reports. However, the company appears largely unscathed–at least it does on the outside. Keep in mind that this is far from the first time Zynga has been the target of a lawsuit.

This gives even better reason to ask this question: Is Zynga constantly the victim of legal attacks because it’s simply something that comes with being a mulit-billion company or does it have more to do with its methods? If anything, this goes to show how intense the social games business has become in more ways than one.（source:games.com）