Zynga settles in lawsuit over casual sex app

Zynga has settled in a lawsuit against TheNextBang over the alleged infringement of its With Friends social games trademark, the company announced today. Bang With Friends -- not to be confused with safe sex educational game Safe Sex with Friends -- is a non-game app that bears very little resemblance with Zynga's social game titles, apart from the name. Linking up with the user's Facebook account, the app is designed to facilitate casual sex encounters among the user's friends list. It was pulled from the iTunes App Store in May of this year, though that hasn't stopped Zynga from pursuing legal action against app developer TheNextBang on the basis of trademark violation. In a U.S. district court filing from July, Zynga contended that Bang With Friends had the social game developer's IP "fully in mind," thus providing grounds for a suit. It appears Zynga's argument was a solid one. Though the specific terms of today's settlement remain confidential, a Zynga spokesperson confirmed that Bang With Friends developer TheNextBang has indeed agreed to change the name of the app with the next version.