Zynga sues French publisher over ‘Ville’ trademark

Zynga is suing a French publishing for trademark infringement over the use of the term ‘Ville in one of its games.

As reported by Reuters, the social games giant filed a lawsuit against Kobojo in the San Francisco Federal Court over its Facebook title PyramidVille.

Zynga claims to have ownership of the term as it has “consistently promoted the Ville Family of games together as a family, identified by the distinctive ‘Ville suffix.

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It added that Facebook users were “likely to believe, erroneously, that PyramidVille is a member of Zynga’s Ville family of games”.

This is despite the company’s failure so far to secure a trademark on the term after its efforts were stalled in the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Zynga is seeking damages of three times the profit that Kobojo has earned from PyramidVille since its release early last year.

The casual games company is also currently threatening a lawsuit against BlingVille over its use of the suffix, with the Harpers Ferry-based developers having received cease and desist orders in November.