With Friends Archives – We're Fusible

Zynga goes on domain buying spree for new Scramble with Friends app

On Thursday, Zynga announced the launch of the mobile social game Scramble With Friends, saying, “Scramble with Friends is a fast-paced, fun-packed game that combines the brain bending experience of Zynga’s original Scramble.”

On the same day the social gaming company announced the game on its blog, it also registered several domain names through the brand protection company MarkMonitor, like scramblewithfriends2.com and playscramblewithfriends.com.

Zynga doesn’t own scramble.com, and it’s hard to say whether the company officially owns ScramblewithFriends.com. The web address, which was first registered back in January 2011 according to WHOIS records, points to a Go Daddy parked page. The owner is currently hidden using Go Daddy’s privacy service Domains by Proxy.

Here’s the full list of domains that were registered on January 5 through MarkMonitor.

playscramblewithfriends.com
scramblewithfriends2.com
scramblewithfriends3.com
scramblewithfriendsandroid.com
scramblewithfriendsapp.com
scramblewithfriendsfacebook.com
scramblewithfriendsgame.com
scramblewithfriendshd.com
scramblewithfriendsipad.com
scramblewithfriendsiphone.com
scramblewithfriendslive.com
scramblewithfriendsmobile.com
scramblewithfriendsplus.com
wwwscramblewithfriends.com

Scramble with Friends is available for download on the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch and will be coming soon for Android.

Zynga files trademark for “With Friends” with the US Patent and Trademark Office

On March1, 2011, Zynga filed for a trademark on the word “ville” in Europe.

Days later, Zynga then followed “ville” with an application in Europe for “With Friends” on March 7.

Now, the social gaming giant which filed for its IPO on July 1, has filed an application (No. 85361265) for trademark rights on the word mark “With Friends” in the United States.

As opposed to the European trademark filing [read here] which covers three different categories of goods and services ranging from clothing and footwear to education, the U.S. trademark is much simpler:

“Providing an online portal for computer games, video games, and gaming applications; providing information about computer games, video games, and gaming applications via the Internet.”

It was revealed in Zynga’s IPO filing that the company paid $53.3 million for the purchase of Newtoy, the developer of “Words With Friends” and other popular “With Friends” games.

Considering the amount paid for NewToy was its largest of any of its acquisitions, the company is definitely interested in protecting its “With Friends” brands, although it may ruffle some feathers as it did with its application for “Ville”.