Zynga files for trademark on Farmville English Countryside: Guess who owns the domain? … and it’s not Zynga

Last month, I wrote about how Zynga filed for the European trademark on the word “ville”, which sparked a series of news stories and blog posts over the controversial nature of the application by the gaming company.  Writers from around the web ranging from CNET to Business Insider weighed in on the topic.

Well, now Zynga has filed another trademark this week over its latest launch: English Countryside, an expansion to one of its top games, Farmville.

What about the domain names?

While it looks as if someone is cybersquatting on the URL farmvilleenglishcountryside.com (registered in late February according to Whois), the generic (and non-controversial) version of the name, englishcountryside.com, also isn’t owned by Zynga.  It’s owned by none other than Mike Berkens, the Editor of the blog The Domains who happens to own some of the top generic domains in the world.

Over the last year, Zynga has acquired a number of domain names on the aftermarket prior to launching its properties publicly, like Cityville.com for $38,225 and Rewardville.com for $4,500.  But in the case of “English Countryside”, a term that refers to the hundreds of cottages and rolling hills around England, looks like Zygna opted to stick with Farmville.com — a name it acquired from another famous domain investor: Frank Schilling of domainnamesales.com.