Facebook game Mafia Wars being sued by EA founder

Zynga's 'Mafia Wars', the popular Facebook game, is being sued by Digital Chocolate since they have the same exact name (and game) for mobile devices.

The founder of Electronic Arts and also of Digital Chocolate, Trip Hawkins, is now suing the game company Zynga for their red-hot game known as Mafia Wars, reports Paid Content. The game allows users to pretend they are part of a Mafia family and do different deeds in order to gain more points and money. Several other games have followed this same formula, including the very popular FarmVille. During the summer of 2009, Zynga attempted to trademark Mafia Wars despite receiving constant jabs from Digital Chocolate to cease. Because Zynga ignored the threats, Digital Chocolate then considered this an opportunity to sue Zynga under the following: “Zynga has 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's specialty in the gaming niche world is mostly mobile games, meaning games found on mobile devices such as iPhone's, iPad's and other smartphones or gadgets. However, the past two years, they have been beefing up their social games in order to compete with such companies as Zynga. Paid Content also reported a reply from Zynga to Digital Chocolate: “We are surprised and disappointed by Digital Chocolate’s lawsuit. The timing of the action appears to be opportunistic, and we plan to defend ourselves vigorously.”