King Takes Down Pac-Avoid. Ripped off another game?

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Update: 01/23/14 King has recently responded to Cox's claims, and has stated, "King does not clone other people's games," going on to say in a statement made to Polygon, the studio does a "thorough search of other games in the marketplace," However despite this, King has now "taken down" Pac-Avoid.

Original Article:

With Candy Crush maker, King.com, recently filing copyrights for the words “candy” and “saga,” the company is quickly becoming a target of hate for many. However, this doesn’t appear to be the first time King has pulled a shady move, as an indie developer recently called out the company for copying his now 5-year old flash game.

Creator Matthew Cox stated his small studio, Stolen Goose, came in contact with King when Goose’s Pac-Manesque avoider game, Scamperghost, was in development. Although King and Stolen Goose failed to come to terms and with no contract ever being signed, King –according to e-mail from the maker of the clone game Pac-Avoid – contacted EpicShadow to “clone [Scamperghost] very quickly,” so that Pac-Avoid could “beat the release of the original game.”

The initial reaction to Pac-Avoid’s release prompted King to e-mail Cox, which stated the company was indeed interested in an avoider game such as Scamperghost. However, as King’s director of product performance, Jars Jornow, went on to say, “The flash world is filled of similar-looking games, and there are probably hundreds of avoider-games with similar menus, a box with enemies, and coins – and we thought Scamper Ghost was awesome.”

So basically, Zynga has travelled into the future and used SCIENCE!! !! gone horribly wrong to clone themselves, bringing the clone back here, calling it "King" and sending it out into the world to do their foul bidding?

Hm. Good to know. I prefer not to give money to evil clones.

Where is Namco in all of this, since they are the original developer of PAC-Man? AFAICT, Pac-Man is still under copyright and trademark protection.

"King does not clone other people's games," ... the studio does a "thorough search of other games in the marketplace,"

Actually, it really ISNT a clone of those for the most part.