Zynga slaps virtual goods auction site with lawsuit

Zynga Game Network have filed a lawsuit against PlayerAuctions.com, a Web site that allows players to sell in-game items and currencies in various online games. Zynga are claiming that PlayerAuctions.com are violating their Terms of Service, which disallows selling of any of Zynga's game currencies by a third-party source, and prohibits the use of their currencies for real-world money. Zynga currently have pending trademarks for the majority of their games, and claim that PlayerAuctions is using their trademarks without permission in addition to their imagery (which violates copyright law).

The Games.com blog took a peek at PlayerAuctions to see what kind of items are available. We found only a few auctions for YoVille coins, ranging from 500,000 to 5 million YoVille Coins. While there was a category for FarmVille, no auctions were found for that game. Mafia Wars has the most auctions, with just over 2,800 auctions posted. Most of these auctions are for in-game items, however there are currently 82 Facebook and MySpace accounts with high level Mafia Wars characters and supplies. There are currently no other auctions for the other Zynga games. Whether PlayerAuctions will keep this auctions up during this lawsuit is questionable, but time will tell.