Zynga, Vostu Settle Copyright Lawsuit; Brazilian Gaming Company To Pay Up

Zynga and Vostu has settled their copyright lawsuits, according to a representative for Vostu. Vostu has paid Zynga an undisclosed sum as part of the settlement and made changes to its games.

Here is the joint statement the companies issued: “Zynga and Vostu have settled the copyright lawsuits and counterclaims against each other in the United States and Brazil. As part of the settlement, Vostu made a monetary payment to Zynga and made some changes to four of its games. The parties are pleased to have settled their disputes and to now put these matters behind them.”

For background, Zynga hit Brazilian gaming startup Vostu with a massive lawsuit in June, alleging that the company was copying Zynga’s games. In fact, Zynga alleged that Vostu was copying Zynga’s games so closely that they even inadvertently included the bugs.

In return, Vostu claimed that Zynga has copied other games repeatedly over the years, including Zynga’s hit game Cityville.

Zynga then sued shareholder Google over the Vostu dispute, because Orkut, which is popular in Brazil, was hosting the Vostu games that Zynga says are ripoffs.

Lawsuits were filed in California and in Brazil. Vostu has a fairly large userbase in the Latin American country. In fact, 25% of internet users in Brazil play Vostu games.

Clearly this is ugly, but Zynga won this battle. And it’s not surprising that the companies reached an agreement at this time. As Zynga is about to go public, the social gaming giant is surely trying to get some of these legal issues resolved in the next few weeks. Vostu has raised a total of $46 million from Intel Capital, Accel Partners, General Catalyst, and Tiger Technology Global Management.