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.
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'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.
In that case I apologize. I thought it was an intentional and clever play on their brands, like BangWithFriends did (though of course I could be wrong about that too).
Comments
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.
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...
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.
Thanks, that's helpful to know. We're working with some IP folks on this right now.
In that case I apologize. I thought it was an intentional and clever play on their brands, like BangWithFriends did (though of course I could be wrong about that too).
No worries. I appreciate your comments in this thread, even if we both disagree about the reach of the trademark.