According to Bloomberg.com, Zynga Inc. (ZNGA) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California against the maker of the “Bang With Friends” claiming it infringes on Zynga’s trademark for its “with friends” family of games.
Zynga alleges the company “selected the name ‘Bang With Friends’ with Zynga’s game trademarks fully in mind, further claiming that the name infringes a trademark covering games such as “Words With Friends” and “Chess With Friends” and is seeking a court order baring the company from using the name “Bang With Friends” in connection with any social-networking applications in the U.S. and unspecified damages.
The case is Zynga Inc. v. Bang With Friends Inc., 13-03517, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco)
I’m seeing 1,358 dot coms that are _____withfriends.com. That’s a lot of UDRPs! LOL
Expect 23andme to file against friendsandme.com soon… it will be an interesting case. Looks like Zynga business is not doing well, so they try to compensate by “free” publicity directly from the courtroom.
‘Bang With Buddies’ might have been a better name choice. You’re just asking for trouble if your App is popular, and it’s got a name that is similar in nature to another popular series of Apps.