Zynga is accusing a former employee of stealing ideas and giving them to a rival. The social gaming company Zynga filed a complaint in a San Francisco court against Alan Patmore, the company's former general manager for the CityVille game.

Patmore has left to work for competitor Kixeye, but Zynga claims that before he left he copied over 760 corporate files into his DropBox account.  The folder was named "Zynga". The information taken, Zynga claims, included "know-how of core game mechanics and monetizstion techniques."

A Kixeye spokesperson said that the company is not involved in the suit. He somewhat sarcastically said that this appears to be Zynga's new employee retention strategy. If you leave the company they will sue you. It should encourage other staff members to ito stay.

Kixeye has slammed Zynga's treatment of its employees. In July, the company posted this YouTube video satirizing the work environment at Zynga. Zynga still faces legal challenges of its own, including suits filed by Electronic Arts and Maxis over wholesale copying of EA's The Sims Social for Zynga's The Ville.  It also faces class-action lawsuits over insider trading.

More here.