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News Video Games

Zynga registers slew of domain names following announcement of new games

Dream Zoo

On the day Zynga announced a “gaggle of new social games“, it registered well over 150 domain names as part of its intellectual property strategy.

The defensive domain registrations center around Project Z, Castleville, Zynga Bingo, Zynga Casino, Hidden Chronicles, Dream Zoo and Mafia Wars 2.

The domains include typical defensive registrations like Dreamzoosucks.com and wwwzyngabingo.com, but among the list of names are hints of other games for its newly created Zynga Casino franchise such as zyngacraps.com, zyngadice.com, zyngakeno.com, zyngapaigowpoker.com and zyngaroulette.com.

The names also point to which devices and platforms the new games may be available on such as ZyngaBingoGoogleplus and Dreamzooipad.com.

It’s unknown whether Zynga owns the matching names to each new game like Castleville.com, which The Domains wrote about yesterday.  As Mike Berkens noted in the article, the domain was registered to someone in Shangha China using Tucows.com until August 8th, when it went under privacy at Godaddy.com.  The name has now transferred name servers from domaincontrol.com to cotdns.net as of today, signalling a website may be unveiled shortly, as well as the owner.

Over the last year Zynga has improved its domain buying methods in order to keep its unreleased games a secret, including using a generic Yahoo! email address when registering names.

Here’s the full list of domains Zynga registered through the brand protection company MarkMonitor.

bingobyzyngaandroid.com
bingobyzyngaipad.com
bingobyzyngaiphone.com
castleville.us
castleville2.com
castlevilleandroid.com
castlevilleapp.com
castlevilleblog.com
castlevillebot.com
castlevillecash.com
castlevillecoins.com
castlevillecrowns.com
castlevilleecards.com
castlevillefacebook.com
castlevillefans.com
castlevilleforums.com
castlevillegame.com
castlevillegamecards.com
castlevillegiftcards.com
castlevillegifts.com
castlevillehacks.com
castlevilleipad.com
castlevilleiphone.com
castlevillemobile.com
castlevillenews.com
castlevillerewards.com
castlevillestore.com
castlevillesucks.com
castlevilletoolbar.com
castlevillezynga.com
dreamzoo.us
dreamzoo2.com
dreamzooandroid.com
dreamzooapp.com
dreamzooblog.com
dreamzoobot.com
dreamzoocash.com
dreamzooecards.com
dreamzooforums.com
dreamzoogame.com
dreamzoogamecards.com
dreamzoogiftcards.com
dreamzoogifts.com
dreamzoohacks.com
dreamzooipad.com
dreamzooiphone.com
dreamzoomobile.com
dreamzoonews.com
dreamzoostore.com
dreamzoosucks.com
dreamzoozynga.com
fuckcastleville.com
fuckdreamzoo.com
fuckhiddenchronicles.com
fuckzyngabingo.com
fuckzyngacasino.com
hiddenchronicles.us
hiddenchronicles2.com
hiddenchroniclesandroid.com
hiddenchroniclesapp.com
hiddenchroniclesblog.com
hiddenchroniclesbot.com
hiddenchroniclescash.com
hiddenchroniclescoins.com
hiddenchroniclescrowns.com
hiddenchroniclesecards.com
hiddenchroniclesfacebook.com
hiddenchroniclesfans.com
hiddenchroniclesforums.com
hiddenchroniclesgame.com
hiddenchroniclesgamecards.com
hiddenchroniclesgiftcards.com
hiddenchroniclesgifts.com
hiddenchronicleshacks.com
hiddenchroniclesipad.com
hiddenchroniclesiphone.com
hiddenchroniclesmobile.com
hiddenchroniclesnews.com
hiddenchroniclesrewards.com
hiddenchroniclesstore.com
hiddenchroniclessucks.com
hiddenchronicleszynga.com
ilovedreamzoo.com
ilovezyngacasino.com
mafiawars2google.com
mafiawars2googleplus.com
mafiawarstwogoogle.com
mafiawarstwogoogleplus.com
playdreamzoo.com
playzyngacasino.com
projectzynga.com
wwwcastleville.com
wwwdreamzoo.com
wwwhiddenchronicles.com
wwwzyngabingo.com
wwwzyngacasino.com
zygnabaccarat.com
zyngabigsix.com
zyngabingo.us
zyngabingo2.com
zyngabingoandroid.com
zyngabingoapp.com
zyngabingoblog.com
zyngabingobot.com
zyngabingocash.com
zyngabingoecards.com
zyngabingofacebook.com
zyngabingofans.com
zyngabingoforums.com
zyngabingogame.com
zyngabingogamecards.com
zyngabingogiftcards.com
zyngabingogifts.com
zyngabingogoogle.com
zyngabingogoogleplus.com
zyngabingohacks.com
zyngabingoipad.com
zyngabingoiphone.com
zyngabingomobile.com
zyngabingonews.com
zyngabingorewards.com
zyngabingostore.com
zyngabingosucks.com
zyngabingotoolbar.com
zyngacasino.us
zyngacasino2.com
zyngacasinoandroid.com
zyngacasinoapp.com
zyngacasinoblog.com
zyngacasinobot.com
zyngacasinocash.com
zyngacasinochips.com
zyngacasinoecards.com
zyngacasinofacebook.com
zyngacasinofans.com
zyngacasinoforums.com
zyngacasinogame.com
zyngacasinogamecards.com
zyngacasinogiftcards.com
zyngacasinogifts.com
zyngacasinogold.com
zyngacasinogoogle.com
zyngacasinogoogleplus.com
zyngacasinohacks.com
zyngacasinoipad.com
zyngacasinoiphone.com
zyngacasinomobile.com
zyngacasinonews.com
zyngacasinorewards.com
zyngacasinostore.com
zyngacasinosucks.com
zyngacasinotoolbar.com
zyngacasinowar.com
zyngacraps.com
zyngadice.com
zyngakeno.com
zyngapaigowpoker.com
zyngaproject.com
zyngaroulette.com
zyngaslots.us
zyngathebigsix.com
zyngawar.com

Discussion: Inside Social Games

Categories
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.]