
Zynga Tells CupidWithFriends To Stop Using ‘With Friends’ - siong1987
http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/17/with-friends-joke-goes-here/
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robryan
Am I the only one that thinks this is a legitimate? I could see myself
thinking anything suffixed with "with friends" that is an app as part of the
Zynga range.

Granted that fact that it isn't a game could be enough to remove some of the
confusion.

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jmtame
I think it'd be one thing if we were a gaming company and used a thought
bubble with the same look and design that Zynga uses for their With Friends
family of marks, but there's no possibility of confusion there and on top of
that, we don't operate in the same space. We're a dating startup.
CupidForFriends.com is taken otherwise we would have just switched and 301
redirected.

~~~
pbiggar
Got to say I disagree here. You might be in a different space but you're close
enough for confusion. "With Friends" is a valuable trademark for them, they
spent a lot on building that trademark, and you are piggybacking on it
intentionally (I could be wrong about the intentionally part, but I'd be
surprised).

I really think you should change the name. If you go on a full out fight with
Zynga, you won't find much sympathy I think.

That said, some very nice PR here, and you can probably look forward to some
more PR once you acquiesce :)

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jmtame
To be honest this was not intentional and I was kind of surprised by the
initial email--as the search for new product names usually goes, we started by
looking at what domain was available.

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kordless
I suggest contacting a trademark attorney and see if you can get a short pro
bono consultation. I'd ask about what they thought about your classification.

I'm not an attorney, but via
<http://www.iusmentis.com/trademarks/crashcourse/rights/> it says 'The most
common type of trademark infringement probably occurs when somebody else sells
a product or service under a name that in some way resembles a registered
trademark, and the products in question are the same or similar to the
registered products.'

Zynga's classes are IC 041. US 100 101 107. and IC 009. US 021 023 026 036
038.

I don't see dating services in there: [http://tess2.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
brs?sect2=THESOFF&sec...](http://tess2.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
brs?sect2=THESOFF&sect3=PLURON&pg1=ALL&s1=dating&l=MAX&sect1=IDMLICON&sect4=HITOFF&op1=AND&d=TIDM&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2Ftidm.html&r=0&f=S)

I'm no attorney, but I'd go talk to one about your classification.

And if you take Paul's advice, make sure you make part of the deal that Zynga
will do forwarding of the old domain for you for 2 years so you can transition
your 75K users over. Impact to them and your business is non-trivial.

~~~
jmtame
Thanks, that's helpful to know. We're working with some IP folks on this right
now.

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deadfall
This is silly. "Hey, Zynga, stop using 'Wars'. Thanks, Ninendo"

~~~
jmtame
Their claim is that it'll cause confusion, but my thoughts are: if you're
going to trademark a common English phrase, you should be prepared to deal
with some amount of confusion. People have been doing stuff with friends
before Zynga came along.

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pvnick
Two words I think pretty much summarize my general sentiment towards Zynga.

"Fuck you"

~~~
gummydude
No, "Fuck USPTO"

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t0
Original thread: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5721310>

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rdl
I do associate "crap with friends" with Zynga, so I'd rebrand, not because of
the letter, but because they have poisoned the general "with friends" phrase.

