Zynga Tries To Trademark 'Ville'
from the there-go-my-plans-for-faceville dept
Back in January, we wrote about Zynga — who had a reputation for 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.
