Personalized Media Communications has sued social games developer Zynga, citing four separate examples of patent infringement.
PMC are suggesting that several Zynga titles use patented technology. The have pointed to games like CityVille and FarmVille as two examples of games that use their tech.
According to Gamasutra the patents cover "the use of control and information signals embedded in electronic media content to generate output for display that is personalized and relevant to a user." In a nutshell, the patents cover advertising tools that allow for very specific targeting based on user preferences.
John C. Harvey from PMC said: ""Many years of time and labor went into developing our inventions and securing the patents that permit their practice. It wouldn't be right to sit by and allow them to be infringed."