Zynga Becoming A Trademark Bully: Threatens Blingville For Daring To Use 'ville'
from the get-over-it dept
Zynga is really building up quite a reputation as a trademark bully lately. The company, which also has a reputation for copying everyone else, got into a legal fight last year after it copied the name of its game Mafia Wars, from another company who had that. The two companies had come to an agreement earlier, which Zynga simply decided to ignore. And now it's stretching its trademark bullying in more ridiculous ways, claiming that no one else can append "ville" to any social media game. It sent a cease & desist to the company that runs Blingville (which has had the domain for many years). Eric Goldman alerts us to the news that the company behind Blingville, has hit back by filing a lawsuit against Zynga (full filing embedded below) asking the court to declare that Blingville doesn't infringe on any Zynga trademark. What I really don't understand is why Zynga is acting this way. It has no reason to be a trademark bully, and doing so only makes the company look petty.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: blingville, bully, trademark, ville
Companies: blingville, zynga
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It doesn't pass the old "moron in a hurry" test, as plenty of morons would think that blingville is a new game from those farmville guys.
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However, in the narrow market of facebook related social games, "ville" games are known to be Zynga games. Someone coming along and opening another "somethingville" social game on facebook is standing very, very close to an existing trademark (and in fact, an existing series of trademarks). It is pretty easy to make the argument that the new company is attempting to play off of the goodwill created by Zynga with their various "ville" games, and thus while they don't have specifically that name trademarked, there is a clear case for confusion in the marketplace.
That's why there is a Mr Clean,and no Mrs Clean, because the confusion in the market place would be easy to spot.
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I guess before I continue with this argument I should probably ask this: What was Blingville in 2004? Was it a web game or was it just a squatters page? There's no information about what was before. If they were a flash based game that decided to move to Facebook, then there's no trademark issue here. If they were a website that sold car parts then recently decided to make a game, then it may be a problem (facebook relationship not required), if we assume that you can trademark *ville.
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FarmVille (CityVille, etc.) REPRESENT groups of users acting together to create a "village" atmosphere, hence the ville. As such, they're trying to trademark what... a village?
You wouldn't say that Nashville, Knoxville, Louisville, and so on have the rights to sue Zynga for digital representations of cities even though they used the names WELL BEFORE 2004. What about papers that wrote about Hoovervilles in the great depression? You wouldn't say that they should be able to sue Zynga.
They have the TM to their game names, sure, but the suffix they use is a common Latin derived suffix that has been used the world over. Suing based on that is just plain stupid.
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And, considering their actions with Farmtown and Mafia Wars, you think they would clean up their own act instead of bothering others.
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It sort of suggests that they have something to do with facebook.
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Its time that Zynga started to operate with integrity, not only Blingville but with Mafia Wars and others too. Why do they think they need to stoop to these underhanded tactics to keep there game going? It just isn't necessary or appreciated by those of us who use their games.
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So...
Hypocrite, much?
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I thought that was called the internet.
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Hey Zynga!
Then! File bankruptcy!
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Bazynga
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This reminds me of that whole IHOP thing when the restaurant chain was pissed at the "international house of prayer."
I mean really, who cares? I really don't see what difference it makes.
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Site is just an advert for a Facebook game
I see the same, and the only links are to Facebook. Also it seems the page previously said "Blingville, Coming 2010", since last April.
http://webboar.com/www/blingville.com
Is there any evidence this was ever a real, functioning site?
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Dogville ?
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Cubeville and justiceville for the wins
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How can they think that they own a common word like ville.
That's ridiculous
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zynga had a choice
myopic right isnt always worldwide right
if their logic holds tru than any other game started before their company actually becomes the bigger fish and can sue them for all that are or acquire
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Better luck next time.
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Sheesh...
Sheesh, the irony lies so thick on nit that you can put a spoon in it.
All they ever do is making stuff like Farmville and such, and then copy the game, change the graphics and the name from "ville"to "town"and launch the game.
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