Yesterday Zynga responded to Electronic Art's copyright infringement suit,
filed in early August, with a counter-claim and a motion denying EA's allegations as a "smear campaign." Zynga's counter-suit accused EA of trying to pressure Zynga into a non-hire agreement—essentially restricting Zynga from hiring employees defecting from EA. Such practice is illegal in California.
Zynga's
countersuit claims that EA saw Zynga's recent hires of three executive-level staff as a threat to the company's copyright privileges. Still, Zynga alleges it was within its rights to make those hires: "EA knows that none of the former EA executives it names in its lawsuit—John Schappert, Jeff Karp, and Barry Cottle—transmitted any EA confidential information to Zynga because EA itself was involved in, and approved of, the exhaustive measures undertaken to ensure that did not happen." Both Schappert and Karp left Zynga in something of an
executive exodus that has occurred in recent weeks.
But Zynga goes on to say that after EA executives left for Zynga, "EA explicitly communicated to Zynga that, although Zynga’s past hiring was lawful, EA’s Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello was "on the war path," "incensed," and "heated" and intent on stopping Zynga’s future hiring of EA employees." Zynga General Counsel Reggie Davis told CNET
in a statement that it considered EA's actions "anti-competitive and unlawful."
In a
separate motion, Zynga asked the San Francisco court to strike several allegations from EA's origingal suit as "they constitute redundant, immaterial, impertinent and/or scandalous matter that is unfairly prejudicial to Zynga." The allegations, Zynga says, include citations of bloggers and anonymous sources.
Zynga has had its fair share of financial and legal troubles this summer, with a precipitous drop in stock value followed by
on-going investigations into whether top executives were involved in insider trading. EA's copyright infringement suit seemed to be the tip of the iceberg, but clearly Zynga is intent on defending its territory.
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