Zynga accused of infringing in-game rewards patent
Zynga is facing allegations it infringed another gaming company?s patents related to in-game rewards and prizes.

Agincourt Gaming claims, among other things, that a system for in-game rewards in Zynga?s FarmVille,

Mafia Wars and other games is covered under a 1996 patent.

Agincourt Gaming is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a permanent injunction against Zynga.

Zynga, which is readying an IPO, is the focus of several other lawsuits alleging patent infringement by the company.

Zynga added an in-game currency and rewards program earlier this year that allows users to earn points and coins that can be spent within a game. The program also enables users to unlock virtual goods.

Android users interact with mobile applications more than Web: Nielsen 
The average Android consumer in the United States spends more time actively interacting with mobile applications than the mobile Web, according to new data from Nielsen Smartphone Analytics.

Consumers spend, on average, 56 minutes per day actively interacting with the Web and apps on their phone. Of that time, 67 percent of the time is spent on mobile apps while 33 percent is spent on the mobile Web.

A very small number of apps account for the majority of time spent even though there hundreds of thousands of apps available for Android. The top 10 Android apps account for 43 percent of all the time spent by Android consumers on mobile apps. The top 50 apps account for 61 percent of the time spent.

This means that remaining apps have to compete for 39 percent of the pie.

MocoSpace adds to fund for HTML5 game developers
MocoSpace is adding an additional $1 million to its mobile game developer fund to help accelerate the development of HTML5 games played on smartphone browsers. The fund, which now totals $2 million, will be used to provide selected developers with cash and marketing support to develop and promote their titles on the MocoSpace Games Platform.

The MocoSpace fund also supports the development of games for Facebook?s Project Spartan, which is expected to arrive this fall and will be an HTML5-based platform for games and apps.

The goal is to offer a wider variety of games to gamers on any mobile Web enabled device.

The fund has already resulted in over half a dozen games created in HTML5 that are being distributed to MocoSpace?s 22 million users. The list includes Happy Farm and Cage Figther from New Game Town, In the Club from Upgraded Studios and Goosy Avatar and Goosy Pets from Celander US Inc.

Break Media?s iOS have over 1M downloads
Digital entertainment content distributor Break Media reports that its mobile app has surpassed 1.5 million downloads across Android and iOS platforms. The iOS app, which was launched in Jan. 2010, has had over 1 million downloads.

Break Media said its sees mobile video as its next big growth opportunity.

Break Media?s properties include online humor site Break.com as well as MadeMan, GameFront and HolyTaco.

Break receives 10 million monthly mobile visits and an average of 100,000 unique mobile app visits every day.

Break?s video views on both mobile and consumer electronic devices now make up 12 percent of the company?s non-advertising video views, up from five percent back in January 2011.

IAd head joins venture capital firm
The head of Apple?s iAd team, Andy Miller, has joined venture capital firm Highland Capital Partners as a general partner.

Mr. Miller was vice president of mobile advertising at Apple, where he headed up the company?s mobile advertising network for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Previously, Mr. Miller was the co-founder and CEO of Quattro Wireless, the mobile advertising company that was seeded by Highland and acquired by Apple in 2009.

Mr. Miller will work to partner with promising mobile and technology companies. He will be based in Highland?s Menlo Park office.