Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Tue, 8 Mar 2011 14:34:21 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110308/00040113392/zynga-tries-to-trademark-ville.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110308/00040113392/zynga-tries-to-trademark-ville.shtml copying the games of lots of other companies, including a blatant copying of the name "Mafia Wars" from another gamemaker (for which Zynga just settled a lawsuit) -- and was now becoming quite the trademark bully itself, specifically going after Blingville, for daring to use the suffix "ville." Zynga has no registered trademark on "ville" (though, in trademark law, you do not necessarily need a registered mark, and can quite frequently get by with a common law mark), but the folks over at Fusible have noticed that Zynga has recently filed for the trademark on "ville" in Europe. The application is to cover three different classifications, including for online computer and electronic games (of course). Once again, this seems pretty extreme. The suffix "ville" is hardly unique to Zynga, and it shouldn't be allowed to monopolize it like this. Hopefully the application is rejected.

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]]> there-go-my-plans-for-faceville http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110308/00040113392 Wed, 19 Jan 2011 06:12:30 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110117/02525512697/zynga-becoming-trademark-bully-threatens-blingville-daring-to-use-ville.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110117/02525512697/zynga-becoming-trademark-bully-threatens-blingville-daring-to-use-ville.shtml 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.

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