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News Trademarks Video Games

Zynga gets smarter with trademarks and domain registrations, more secretive

Hanging with Friends

It finally looks like Zynga is getting a little bit smarter in terms of domain name registrations and trademark applications. 

Normally, a closely guarded secret by gaming companies, many of Zynga’s yet-to-be released and recently released titles are anything but secret.  But that’s now changing, as the social gaming giant has been on a buying spree of late and is planning for an IPO, it’s getting savvier with its domain name registrations and trademark filings. 

Trademark and yet-to-be released game titles

It’s European trademark filing for Rewardville pinpointed the company as the buyer of the matching domain, before the game was even launched to the public.  Other trademarks have backfired, like that of “ville” which broke here. 

For its latest launch of Empires & Allies, a combat strategy game, Zynga was patient.  The company didn’t file for trademarks in the United States until the same day it unveiled the game on June 1, 2011.  Its European trademark was filed June 2.

Before the Empires & Allies trademark filings though, the company filed other trademarks for unknown titles that news sites and blogs have yet to pick up — like the trademark applications for Mojitomo or Patentville

Adjusting the timing on trademark applications is one thing, but the company finally caught up on domain registrations too.

Zynga’s domain name hints

When I wrote in early May that Zynga registered the domain name hangmanwithfriends.com and I predicted a Hangman game on the iOS (which it launched a month later), the registrant information was hidden behind GoDaddy’s Private Registration service (Domains by Proxy).  However, the registrant information wasn’t so private after all — as tweeted by Domain Name news in a Twitter message, GoDaddy’s service needs some work. 

After using GoDaddy’s account retrieval system in combination with the domain, a Zynga e-mail address (Email Address:****@zynga.com) was publicly displayed.

It was the same story for farmvilleexpress.com

While GoDaddy might not address the issue with its Privacy service, Zynga has.  The company is sticking with GoDaddy to host many of its names, but its now using an email address with a “yahoo” extension.  If you check hangmanwithfriends.com or farmvilleexpress.com today, you’ll see this (Email Address:****@yahoo.com).

If you thought it was hard before to break a Zynga story, things just got a little harder as its more closely guarding its trademarks and domain registrations.

Categories
News Trademarks Video Games

Game Rumors: Zynga registers Mojitomo domain names, files for trademark

mojitomo

While rumors of Zynga’s imminent IPO continue to spread across news sites and blogs, the company appears to be busy behind the scenes working on a project called Mojitomo. 

The company filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on May 24, 2011. 

Here’s a look at the application from the USPTO website.

Word Mark MOJITOMO
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer game software; video game programs; and computer software platforms for social networking; interactive video game programs; downloadable electronic game programs and computer software platforms for social networking that may be accessed via the Internet, computers and wireless devices; computer software to enable uploading, posting, showing, displaying, tagging, blogging, sharing or otherwise providing electronic media or information in the fields of virtual communities, electronic gaming, entertainment, and general interest via the Internet or other communications networks with third partiesIC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Computer and electronic games provided online, enhancements within online computer and electronic games, and game applications within online computer and electronic games; entertainment reviews of computer games provided online; information relating to computer games provided online; virtual environments in which users can interact through social games for recreational, leisure or entertainment purposes
Standard Characters Claimed  
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 85328208
Filing Date May 24, 2011
Current Filing Basis 1B
Original Filing Basis 1B
Owner (APPLICANT) Zynga Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE 365 Vermont Steret San Francisco CALIFORNIA 94103
Attorney of Record John M. Kim
Type of Mark TRADEMARK. SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

‘Mojitomo’ domain names

Days before on May 21, it looks like the company registered several domain names using MarkMonitor, a brand protection company used by many of the world’s biggest companies.   Zynga’s own moniker, zynga.com, uses the same privacy and brand protection services provided by MarkMonitor and DNStination.

The domains included  mojitomo.com, mojitomo.net, and mojitomo.org, none of which had ever been registered before. 

While I have no proof that Zynga is the registrant of the domain names, there’s a very strong chance considering the names were registered only days before the trademark was filed.

I’ve searched the internet using the keyword “mojitomo”, but I couldn’t find any hints as to what the name could be used for.  Except for the Cuban drink Mojito, not much esle shows up.  There doesn’t appear to be any stories about Zynga and the word mojitomo, aside from this article. 

Could Zynga’s  Japan studio Unoh Games have a game in development?