In the past, Zynga has gotten into some hot water over their supposed lack of creativity with titles like Dream Heights, but this time around things are a little different. According to Reuters, Zynga is suing Kobojo, the developer of PyramidVille, which, in all honestly, looks suspiciously like a Zynga title.
Comparing it to titles like FarmVille, CityVille, and CastleVille, Zynga"s complaint to a San Francisco federal court says that “Facebook users are likely to believe, erroneously, that Pyramidville is a member of Zynga"s "Ville Family of Games,” which it has “consistently promoted... together as a family, identified by the distinctive "Ville suffix.”
This isn"t the first time Zynga has been involved in legal disputes over the "Ville series: they"ve also sued the creators of another Facebook game, Blingville (via MegaGames).
Still, even though PyramidVille does come across as pretty derivative, we"d be a lot more likely to side with Zynga if they didn"t have a history of doing the same thing. They"ve got every right to defend their property, but they might be in for an uphill battle, considering that a good chunk of Facebook games are derivative of their games.