The first rumblings of trouble in paradise appeared with the Maestri V. Zynga lawsuit surrounding Mob Wars and Mafia Wars and their associated IP rights. Well, it looks like this dragon is rearing it’s ugly head again, this time we’re fighting over fish, and not the dead kind wrapped in a newspaper.
According to a recent report at VentureBeat, Crowdstar International’s Happy Aquarium isn’t so happy with WonderHill’s Aquarium Life. Crowdstar has filed a federal lawsuit, claiming that WonderHill is responsible of unfair competition and copyright violations. And the straw that broke the camels back? WonderHill has copied a, “distinctive mating dance to a backdrop of hearts and romantic music.” Queue the Barry White.
Happy Aquarium is a free-to-play, Facebook based game that monetizes through the sale of virtual goods, and attracts around 20 million visitors every month. Crowdstar’s being reeling in the cash, with profits going back into the business, allowing for staff expansion and the launch of new games.
Crowdstar chairman Peter Relan comments, “There are similar fish games. We understand that. This particular one literally lifts not just the overall game mechanics, but words, the user interface, and even the breeding of the fish. It’s almost like you’re staring at our game. You can tell that somebody said, ‘Copy that screen.’ It’s important we protect our brand and not allow blatant copying.’”
As a point of contrast, social gaming Goliath Zynga has jumped on the Fish wagon and launched FishVille, taking obvious queues from Happy Aquariums’ success. So why isn’t Crowdstar going after Zynga as well? While there are most probably a number of factors involved, the lawsuit specifically references the user interface, claiming that the two are virtually identical.
Couldn’t the same case be made by Blizzard/Activision and the host of WoW clones out there?
Apparently the trick here is to differentiate your game just enough to avoid anti-copyright lawsuits. But who’s the great decider here? Apparently, the United States District Court, Northern District of California is about to set precedent and lay down the law as to how close to the edge of copying game developers can go.
The other option here is the out of court settlement, which in all reality is more likely to happen than not, which ultimately will parlay this very type of decision until another upstart copies another property a little too close to the bone.
