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Zynga Asks Blingville To Cease And Desist
Social game giant Zynga – responsible for popular Facebook titles Mafia Wars and FarmVille – is looking to keep the “ville” moniker to itself. Techdirt is reporting that Zynga has sent cease and desist letters to independent game studio Blingville for alleged trademark infringement.
Zynga capitalizes on the “ville” name in a big way across its portfolio of titles. The roster currently includes the aforementioned FarmVille, as well as CityVille, FishVille, FrontierVille, PetVille, and YoVille.
Blingville argues that it has the right to retain its name – and that of its self-titled debut game – because the domain blingville.com has been registered for over five years. According to Blingville, Overtime Apps secured the domain in 2004 and filed a trademark registration late last year, before it “assigned all of its right title and interest in and to the 'Blingville' name and trademark application to Blingville."
The formal trademark for Blingville was filed with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office on November 5 of last year, three days after Zynga's cease-and-desist letter was delivered.
While Zynga hasn’t escalated the threat to an actual lawsuit, Blingville has filed a Complaint For Declaratory Judgment against Zynga asking the court to clear its name and for Zynga to cover any financial burdens associated with the initial cease and desist letters.
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