Zynga Claims Ownership Over All Things "Ville"

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Zynga Claims Ownership Over All Things "Ville"


Zynga has fired off a cease-and-desist letter to the makers of the Facebook game Blingville [http://www.facebook.com/blingville], claiming trademark domain over the use of "ville" in social media games.

Blingville is still in beta testing on CityVille [http://www.facebook.com]. But Zynga nonetheless seems to be doing what it can to stop the party before it gets rolling by sending a C&D letter to Blingville LLC claiming that the use of "ville" in the title infringes upon its social gaming trademark.

The Blingville bunch isn't rolling over for it, however, and has actually filed a lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment that the game does not infringe upon any of Zynga's [http://www.zynga.com/] marks, hoping to nip any potential lawsuits in the bud. "Zynga's assertions create a reasonable apprehension by Blingville that Zynga will file a lawsuit against Blingville asserting claims for trademark infringement," the lawsuit says. "Zynga's assertion of trademark infringement adversely affects Blingville and will continue to do so until this Court makes a determination of Blingville's absolute right to continue to use the trademark name 'Blingville' with its social networking computer game."

Along with the declaratory judgment, the lawsuit also seeks legal fees, expenses and whatever else the Court deems appropriate.

This isn't Zynga's first dispute over the title of one of its games but in the past it's been more of an infringer than an infringee. The company sued in August 2010 [http://techcrunch.com/2009/09/13/zynga-settles-mob-wars-litigation-as-it-settles-in-to-playdom-war/] by Digital Chocolate, which released a mobile game called Mafia Wars in 2004.

Source: Techdirt [http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110117/02525512697/zynga-becoming-trademark-bully-threatens-blingville-daring-to-use-ville.shtml]


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Plurralbles

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Jan 12, 2010
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if they keep it to, "social media game" only then fine.

But if I want to make a single player Ville game they can go fly a kite in a lightning storm.
 

Eri

The Light of Dawn
Feb 21, 2009
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If I was making a game, I sure as hell wouldn't want it associated with failville, they wouldn't have to worry about that for sure.
 

mjc0961

YOU'RE a pie chart.
Nov 30, 2009
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Did Tim Langdell get a job at Zynga or something? This sounds an awful lot like that edge ownership nonsense all over again.
 

ShadowsofHope

Outsider
Nov 1, 2009
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I- ..Blingville?!

Zynga, the premises of that game from this just looks to piss me off in more ways than one, so I am going to just leave this clone alone.
 

Armored Prayer

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Mar 10, 2009
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Someone should redo the font/logo of that game. Took me a good 15 seconds to figure the letters out.

On topic now, this seems a silly. Its like that whole "Edge" battle back awhile ago.
 

WolfEdge

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Oct 22, 2008
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Soo I guess they're gonna have to sue the entirety of my city, what with me living in Louisville and all.

I'll go get my suitcase...
 

Mister Benoit

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Sep 19, 2008
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this isnt my name said:
lol didnt they rip off farmville anyway ? Guess ripping of a gameis fine, aslong as you dont copy the game. Looks like capcom is all clear.
O common, that game they made didn't even resemble Splosionman in the least!
 

chif-ii

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Aug 31, 2010
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So if I want to make a game called "eVille; the Zynga story..."
Armored Prayer said:
Someone should redo the font/logo of that game. Took me a good 15 seconds to figure the letters out.

On topic now, this seems a silly. Its like that whole "Edge" battle back awhile ago.
Seriously, it looked like "Bingo ville" when I first looked at it.
 

Ghengis John

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Dec 16, 2007
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If the headline was only "claims ownership over all things "vile" I'd totally agree, they have the rights.