Zynga has settled a pair of lawsuits with rival game maker Kixeye over a former Zynga employee who was accused of "wholesale theft" of trade secrets before joining Kixeye.
Alan Patmore, the former general manager on Zynga's CityVille, left the game maker in August 2012 to become vice president of product at Kixeye, a rival social-gaming company also based in San Francisco. In a lawsuit filed last October, Zynga sued Patmore and Kixeye, alleging Patmore nabbed 763 files from the game maker, including confidential game designs, and brought them to Kixeye.
Kixeye admitted in a cross-complaint that Patmore did indeed share two documents with the gaming company but said that neither one had to do with Zynga trade secrets or proprietary information. Kixeye's complaint accused Zynga of interfering with its recruiting practices and business relations.
"Zynga Inc. and KIXEYE Inc. have reached a mutually agreeable settlement of their litigation involving Alan Patmore in San Francisco Superior Court," the companies said in a joint statement. Terms of the settlement were not revealed.
Furthermore, Patmore issued a statement in which he apologized to his former employer.
"I accept responsibility for making a serious mistake by copying and taking Zynga confidential information when I resigned from Zynga," he said. "I understand the consequences of my actions and I sincerely apologize to Zynga and my former colleagues."
(Via TechCrunch)