早在今年9月，SF Weekly就有文章指出热门Facebook游戏开发公司Zynga的开发策略是：抄袭其他热门游戏，更换名字，进行营销，占领市场。多年来，Zynga公司凭借这种手段而远近驰名。对此，我并不认为抄袭其他成功游戏，在此基础上进一步开发游戏体验的做法是错误的，然而我对最近Zynga公司试图阻止其他游戏开发公司进行类似手段的行为觉得十分疑惑。我们发现此前Zynga公司也试图利用版权或商标等手段限制其他游戏公司的开发。

Zynga

现在，Zynga试图通过申请专利来达到这一目标。对此，Jarrett Streebin在文章中强调Zynga公司最近提出的专利申请意图涵盖所有普通形式的虚拟货币。

目前，Zynga提出的这一文件还只是专利申请，或许美国专利商标局将会否决这一申请。但无论如何，Zynga的这种做法十分令人疑惑。尤其是该公司的两大投资方Brad Feld和Fred Wilson都不赞成软件专利申请。（本文由游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

Back in September, SF Weekly put out an article pointing out that super popular Facebook gamemaker Zynga’s strategy has been to copy anyone else’s popular game, change the name, market the hell out of it and take over the market. The company has been famous for its somewhat underhanded tactics over the years. That said, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with copying what’s been successful (within the law, obviously) and trying to improve the overall experience. Where things get questionable is when it seeks to stop others from doing the same thing. We’ve noted in the past that Zynga has tried using copyright and trademark law to block others from the market, which is pretty sleazy given its own style of creating games.

Now it looks like it may be looking to do the same with patent law as well. Jarrett Streebin points us to an article highlighting a patent application from Zynga that certainly appears to be trying to patent a rather common form of virtual currencies. You can see the full patent application, which (amusingly) was published the day after that SF Weekly article.

Now, this is only a patent application, so one can hope that the USPTO comes to its senses and rejects it (though, it’s been approving a lot more lately). However, it’s still a pretty questionable move — especially given that two of Zynga’s investors, Brad Feld and Fred Wilson, are some of the most vocal anti-software patent advocates out there. It would be a shame if their money is being used to create more bad patents.（Source：TechDirt）