Zynga vs. BlingVille
In a recent legal fight between FarmVille developer Zynga and Overtime Apps, Zynga is claiming trademark infringement for use of “Ville” in Overtime Apps’ game titled BlingVille. BlingVille is also a social game that will be released on Facebook.
It’s no secret that Zynga has built an empire of successful “Ville” games. Let’s count the ville titled family of games:
- FarmVille
- CityVille
- FishVille
- FrontierVille
- PetVille
- YoVille
FarmVille Creator Zynga Games
Although Zynga does not own the word ville by any means, in the gaming community they have invested interest in their popular ville titled games. It may sound ridiculous, but Zynga has built a reputation in the social gaming world with an extremely large following of players. In fact, many players would try BlingVille just because of its name and on assumption that it is the latest and greatest Zynga game.
A spokesman from Zynga justified the legal matter by making the following statement:
“We regret that BlingVille LLC has chosen to move forward with a social game called BlingVille despite our advance notice to them of our rights. Use of the name ‘BlingVille’ is an obvious attempt to capitalize on the fame and goodwill associated with Zynga’s family of “ville” games which includes FarmVille and CityVille. We are prepared to take all necessary steps to protect our intellectual property rights.”
Who knew that a suffix could cause such a stir!
