2010 seemed to be a good year for lawsuits on the MMO side of the gaming industry and 2011 is already off to a good start to keep pace. Activision Blizzard and Mafia Wars developer Zynga have found themselves the recipients of a lawsuit from Stamford-based invention firm Walker Digital. At the center of the claim is a U.S. Patent for a "database driven online distributed tournament system" issued to Walker Digital in 2002.

Walker Digital alleges that the patent has been infringed upon by a number of games ranging from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 and 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Mafia Wars, World of Warcraft and several others. Walker Digital is seeking compensation for damages from the alleged infringements.

Sources

Gamasutra

TechCrunch