All the Farmville and Mafia Wars vendors being taken to court

Interesting, stealing trademarks is very serious in the digital age

mhclysmic

 

I wonder why they decided to sue them and not warn them first..
usually these things begin and end with a warning made by the complaining side.

even if they do make it to a court and spend possibly tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fee's
they still need to hunt down the actual owners which are likely to be from around the world
with different legal systems and treaties and even if they do manage to overcome this obstacle
how will they sieze funds overseas?
and even if they are able to sieze funds overseas(which is highly unlikely) who says the people
being sued will have these funds available in the first place?

it is an unlikely and risky lawsuit with a very slim chance to recover the funds invested in it.
i saw that one of the websites being sued belongs to platinum partner... good luck hunting for them,.
if i were a lawyer i would had advised them to settle for a warning.

 

hmm, I don't think they would've went to the extent of a lawsuit without first giving a warning. each of them probably already got a warning beforehand.

 

#1) This isn't unlikely - it's one of the most obvious TM violations I've ever seen
#2) It isn't all about the money - it's about forcing the websites to shut down.

I'm almost certain that Zynga has already sent C&Ds to many of these websites, the ones that didn't make changes have now been sued.

 

ooohhh, Zynga is soo biggg me trembbblee

Give me a break, claiming copyright on stolen shit takes some balls :
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-zynga-is-just-like-microsoft-2010-1

Muhahahaha

Good they have so much money, at least they will be able to pay all the lost lawsuits...

Oh and better check the facts big boy, Zynga lost the Mob Wars suite...

 

So what? It doesn't give anyone else the right to profit from their trademarks.

Seriously - the stupidity of the members of this forum amazes me.

 

dlm you are right man but don't you think they are getting too harsh on vendors? I mean, there have always been sellers for in-game gold, accounts, items, strategy guides, tutorials, etc. Even they took down my youtube account.

Now can't i even upload game tutorials or video guides? How fair is that?

There are guides and tutorials on sale for just about everything popular, not just games. They need to understand this and not get too arrogant. We are doing free publicity for them. Why will Zynga lose anything if the Big Boy Blizzard didn't lose anything by letting people make money off it for years?

 

So THIS is what they're going instead of fixing Cafe World...

Cyclone

 

They aren't being too harsh - they are protecting their trademark.

Don't use the name of one of their products in your domain name, don't use the official logo on your website. If you avoid doing those two things, you will be much safer when it comes to lawsuits and C&Ds.

 

haha

Its all marketing strategies.......If they defame here dont they have fame here

 

Thanks for posting some details on the court case and the charges. I get so many invites to play those games, but I haven’t had the chance to check them out yet. I think I will continue to hold out for now, I can’t support this type of behavior just to make money if these charges are legit.

 

dlm: Would you happen to be a member of Zynga's legal team by any chance? Lol.

 

Zynga hasn't been born yesterday and these guys are making fortunes under their brand name it's obvious.

I feel sorry for some vendors but that's the way thing work.

Al.

 

I don't take a liking in Zynga the copycat and I certainly do not fancy the way dlm puts forward his ideas. However, I'd have to give it to him this time round. What he's saying makes sense. I would have done it in a more 'tactical' way if I were Sanders. The way he's doing it, he's seriously looking for trouble.

 

Since you implied that you have good legal knowledge, I have the following questions for you:

1) if farmvillesecrets does not use the exact logo, but it uses the name "farmville" because the site is actually promoting the game by teaching users how to improve their game, is it an infringement?

2) correct me if i am wrong but i understand that infringement of trademark only happens when someone else uses the same trademark for its own similar product. ie if I create a new game today and call it farmville, then it is certainly infringement. In the case of farmvillesecrets.com for instance, they are actually not creating a game and calling it "farmville". The site actually just sells an ebook which teaches users of farmville how to improve their game. Any comments on this?

 

I have a question if any one knows, but is this "lawsuit" going anywhere or was it just a whole lot of smoke? Because I have seen alot of vendors using trademark logos, and names. Oh and also isn't that in the TOS of Clickbank that your product has to be orginial? I am asking this because someone turn around and sue ClickBank since their product is going up through them, and wasn't taking down? As posted in the agreement.

II.PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS

a.All Products must be original or otherwise appropriately licensed and non-infringing content that is digitally delivered (via web pages, downloadable files, or email) within 24 hours of purchase. Immediate delivery preferred. If Your Product cannot meet this requirement, You must receive a written exemption from an authorized ClickBank representative.
b.You may also offer shipped delivery of printed media (books, CD's, and DVD's) as a courtesy to qualified customers, provided the shipped media is clearly complementary and not essential to the operation of the originally downloaded digital Product. The complementary nature of the shipped media must be clearly explained to the customer. See Federal Trade Commission Policy, Advertising and Marketing on the Internet.
c.You understand that ClickBank may require that You include additional guidelines and disclaimers for certain Product categories, and You agree to accept those guidelines and add those disclaimers, if Your Products fall within those categories in order to have the Products sold through ClickBank. For the avoidance of doubt, You acknowledge that You expressly agree to comply with this requirement as a condition of registration pursuant to the ClickBank Client Contract.

Also:

TRADEMARK POLICY
You agree that, in the event ClickBank receives a written demand, such as a "Cease and Desist" letter ("Demand") alleging that any Product ("Client Material") infringes upon, dilutes, tarnishes or otherwise violates its trademark rights, ClickBank may in its sole discretion, remove or disable access to such Client Material until ClickBank receives either:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Im not in law school or anything so I don't know, I am just asking.

 

1) Not totally sure - you would definitely be safer not using the logo, but even naming the product after Farmville could potentially cause problems.

2) Totally wrong, because the Farmville Guide is completely and obviously related to the Farmville game. If you registered something like AppleSpace.com (just an example) and created a product about growing your own apples (instead of something about the computer company), you would be fine.

 

I can almost guarantee that they did. As far as I'm aware, all Farmville guide vendors, including myself, were hit with cease and desist/takedown notices. The difference between people like "Tony Sanders" and the rest of us is that while we complied with Zynga's requests, he did not. I've got nothing against the guy, and he made a nice amount for himself. Hopefully he won't have to pay back all the money he made to Zynga.

 

Well, its hardly the case. A multimillion company wownt mind the expenses of a lawsuit. It dosent depend on how much loss you did to them either. (How can they quantify their loss with a guide anyways? probably such guides can increase their sales because more people will play their game etc)

Its very simple, if you did something illegal, and they find out, they CAN come after you regardless of how severe it is - they have nothing to loose.

 

I'm not a lawyer, but being a publisher I consult with one periodically. You are the only one that seen to have an idea whats going on.

To All Members: Copyright infringement is a serious issue, many CB publishers (and even affiliates) have no idea the risks involved thats why they copy stuff blindly. Some people think that noone can find who they are online, but with a simply court order its easy to get the identity of whos involved, either from the domain registrant, hosting provider, or from clickbank.

The legal system is not something you want to play with. It works in a certain way and all we can do is to comply with that; regardless if we like it or not, regardless of what we think, regardless if it makes sence or not to us, regardless if its fair or not, regardless if we are right or not.

It's always better to consult with a lawyer when publishing anything online these days, especially if third parties are involved.

Thers too much risk involved.