Tag: facebook games

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Disputes News Trademarks Video Games WIPO

Zynga goes after ZyngaGiftcards.com and ZyngaWorld.com domain names

Zynga Gift Cards

Zynga has filed two domain name complaints concerning zyngagiftcards.com and zyngaworld.com with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization. 

The complaints were filed today for ZyngaWorld.com and yesterday for ZyngaGiftcards.com. 

Zynga’s Domain Dispute Track Record

Zynga has had no problem winning domain disputes filed using the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, better known as UDRP. 

In all previous cases, the domain names were transferred from the respondent back to Zynga.  The list of domain names includes zynga-chips.com, zynga.cc, zyngachips.com, zyngapoker.com, buyzyngachips.net, cheapzyngachips.net, chips4zynga.com, yourzyngachips.com, and zyngachips4sell.com.

As TechCrunch reported in March 2010, Zynga rolled out gift cards at a number of major retailers in the U.S.  Though Zynga refers to them as “game cards“, they are essentially gift cards which can be used  for in-game currency to buy the items you want.

Zyngagiftcards.com is currently registered to Joanna Hewett according to Whois Records, and has been registered since December 2009.  Zyngaworld.com is registered to David Cahill of Australia. 

Oddly enough, Zynga doesn’t own zyngagamecards.com and hasn’t filed a dispute over the domain as of yet, even though it refers to its “gift cards” as “game cards”. 

The company also doesn’t own zyngaecards.com, online “game cards” that can be purchased and sent to users with a personal message.  What’s even stranger, is the domain name isn’t even registered at the time of this story, despite the number of abusive registrations the company regularly encounters.  But given Zynga’s success at WIPO, hopefully people will learn some lessons, and avoid these types of registrations.

Though the company will likely win these domain 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 to test and play the soon-to-be released Facebook game.

[Update 1: On March 21, 2011, the WIPO panel ordered the domain name zyngaworld.com transferred to Zynga.  The dispute for zyngagiftcards.com was terminated, after the owner agreed to turn over the name to Zynga.]

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News Trademarks Video Games

Threats by Zynga backfire as thousands line up online to play Blingville on Facebook

Blingville

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!”

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News Trademarks Video Games

Zynga likes to buy unlikely domain names, and social gaming is expected to be a billion-dollar business in 2011

Warstorm

MafiaWars.com, Cityville.com, Rewardville.com, Warstorm.com, YoVille.com:  As reported by Leena Rao of TechCrunch, social gaming is expected to be a billion-dollar business this year.  And those businesses that are getting into the social gaming market will be looking for domain names. 

As they did in 2010 and previous years, social gaming market leader Zynga will likely be looking for more domain names to use for their up-and-coming games.

The company has bought thousands of dollars’ worth of domain names on the aftermarket, including the name for its best performing game on Facebook Cityville.com, which it paid $38,225 for in June 2010 at Moniker.   Cityville is expected to top 100 million monthly active users on Facebook at any moment.

Most recently, the company paid  $4,500 for the domain name Rewardville.com at Sedo, which is rumored that it will be used for its virtual rewards system.   Though Zynga hasn’t publicly confirmed plans for a Rewardville application, the company filed for a trademark in  Europe as reported here on Fusible.com.

But Cityville.com and Rewardville.com weren’t the only publicly reported domain name purchases by Zynga on the aftermarket.

Zynga purchased Mafiawars.com in 2009 on Sedo GreatDomains for €23,500.00 (or about $33,100).  Mafia Wars has gone on to be one of the top Facebook games, with nearly 3 million daily active users according to the latest Appdata metrics. 

The company also owns Warstorm.com.  Though Zynga didn’t directly buy the domain name Warstorm.com, it did buy the company Challenge Games that acquired the domain on Sedo in 2008 for $9,450.

But one of the best domain deals for what is now a Zynga-owned game, is that of Yoville.com, which was purchased for a measly $400 on Sedo in April 2008, shortly before Zynga purchased the Facebook game in July.

With the social gaming market looking to make history in 2011, so might sales of domain names that end up as Facebook games.  Are you holding a winning lottery ticket?

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News Trademarks Video Games

Elliot’s Blog, Fusible, get credit from AOL’s Games.com for breaking, then confirming Zynga Rewardville story

AOL Games

The bigger technology sites and mainstream blogs often take credit for breaking news stories, even though some of those news stories are on occasion reported by bloggers first. 

That’s not the case with a recent breaking story that appeared on Domaining.com yesterday, in which Elliot Silver asked whether Zynga bought the domain name Rewardville.com.

It seems that AOL’s blog over at Games.com is giving credit to Elliot’s Blog and the blog here at Fusible for breaking, then confirming the rumor that Zynga has plans for Rewardville. 

After reading Elliot’s story, in which he noted the domain was marked private and re-directed to rewards.zynga.com, I did some research and discovered that in fact, Zynga Inc. had filed for a European trademark back in December 2010 on the word “Rewardville”. 

Alexander Armero, the Games.com blogger that wrote the story titled, “RewardVille: Zynga plans a mysterious rewards program”, had this to say:

Hot on the heels of CityVille, Zynga may already be planning another release: RewardVille. Today, Fusible confirmed rumors that Zynga has big plans for this mysterious reward program.

The speculation about RewardVille solidified into fact when it was discovered that Zynga had actually filed a trademark for RewardVille back in mid December. Not only that, but they paid $4,500 for the website: rewardville.com. Would you pay that much for a website you didn’t plan on using? I think we can definitely expect to hear a lot more about RewardVille in the future.

Alexander speculates that Rewardville could be used for a new Zynga Lotto, or maybe a new game entirely.  Whatever the case, at the time of this story, Rewardville.com now resolves to a GoDaddy.com parked page.

AOL Games.com

If you’re a fan of Zynga, you should check out the blog over at Games.com.  The writers at Games.com do some of the best coverage on Zynga’s social gaming properties, including Cityville. 

Cityville.com sold for $38,000 in 2010 and is now Facebook’s most popular game of all-time. 

According to AppData, Cityville is expected to top over 100 million monthly active users by the end of this week.

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News Trademarks Video Games

Proof that Zynga has plans for Rewardville: Trademark application filed in Europe

Zynga Rewardville

Zynga Rewardville

Rumor over on Elliot’s Blog is that Zynga, the popular social game development company, purchased the domain name Rewardville.com, possibly for a rewards program that was announced back in late November in a Zynga  Press Release.

Being a big fan of Zynga, I did a little digging on the name Rewardville. 

While the domain name, which recently sold through Sedo for $4,500, is privately registered and redirects to rewards.zynga.com as Elliot Silver noted in his story, here’s what I did find out that no other technology site or blog has reported.

Zynga filed for Trademark in Europe for word: Rewardville

In mid-December, Zynga Inc. filed for a European trademark that went unnoticed. 

The trademark application can be found here, by typing the term “rewardville” in the trademark name search field.

Rewardville trademark by Zynga

Though Zynga’s ultimate plans for Rewardville are not known at this time, chances are it’ll end up being an online resource  and directory of rewards programs offered between Zynga and its partners.