Recently, it came to light over at TechDirt, a technology news blog, that Zynga sent a cease & desist letter to Blingville LLC, the West Virginia company that runs Blingville, an up and coming Facebook game that is currently in Beta testing.
Zynga’s threats against the company, which resulted in Blingville responding with a lawsuit (which can be read here), appear to have backfired at this point.
While no decision has been made as of yet in the lawsuit filed by Blingville, thousands are lining up to test the game online, partly thanks to the press Blingville has received by dozens of technology blogs and news sites, including domainer blogs The Domains and Domain Gang.
I signed up earlier today to become a Beta tester, and was welcomed by a message stating, “Beta Testing in Progress: Your #20,992 in line to test Blingville.” According to the message, testing will last a couple more weeks as the game is prepared for a full launch on Facebook.
Zynga/Ville Trademark developments
People have their own opinions on what the outcome should be when it comes to Zynga vs Blingville.
Whatever the case, there are more “ville” trademarks not owned by Zynga, than there are trademarks actually owned by the social gaming development company.
In fact, earlier this month, Build-a-Bear applied for trademarks on Bearville.com and Bearville. The company owns and operates Build-a-Bearville online, an extension of the in-store experience it offers to customers.
While Blingville LLC, hasn’t put out too much information, the company does have a subscription-based newsletter that aims to keep fans and supporters connected. The company also registered additional domain names related to its soon-to-be released game, including BlingvilleCash.com, which re-directs to Blingville.com.
The last public statement by the company was posted on the company’s Facebook page and read: ” Blingville would like to sincerely thank all of our loyal fans for their support in our defense against Zynga! Your comments are greatly appreciated!”
5 replies on “Threats by Zynga backfire as thousands line up online to play Blingville on Facebook”
[…] to domain blog Fusible, Blingville has acquired at least 20,000 beta testers since the story of its Zynga counter-suit […]
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by littledevilnews, Domain Names. Domain Names said: Threats by @Zynga backfire as thousands line up online to play @Blingville on Facebook http://t.co/1AZkToD @TechCrunch […]
[…] disputes and have the names transferred, they might not be as lucky with the trademark dispute over Blingville, which so far has backfired after Blingville responded with a lawsuit, and thousands have lined up […]
[…] January, TechDirt broke the story that the the social network gaming developer, sent a cease and desist letter to a West Virginia company that is developing a game named Blingville for Facebook, alleging […]
[…] I did a little domain sleuthing today and found that ZyngaSports.com (Whois) was transferred this week to the intellectual property law firm, Keats McFarland & Wilson, who of course acts as Zynga’s attorneys in IP matters such as that of the Blingville dispute. […]