Monday, August 30, 2010

Digital Chocolate sues Zynga in Northern District of California over Mafia Wars

TG Daily reports that Digital Chocolate claims that it owns the trademark for Mafia Wars and that Zynga, "falsely claimed to the public, the United States Patent Office and the courts that it 'coined' the Mafia Wars mark and owns superior rights to the mark."  Digital Chocolate has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California where Judge Patricia V. Trumbull has been assigned to preside.

The complaint is not currently in PACER, so it isn't totally clear what Digital Chocolate is trying to do.  If they want to cancel the trademark they need to demonstrate that Zynga intentionally mislead the PTO into giving it the mark. See Far Out Productions v. Oskar (9th Cir. 2001).

The case is Digital Chocolate, Inc v. Zynga Game Network, Inc.; No. 10-3758.

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