Zynga sue ‘Bang with Friends’ sex app: trademark violation

Zynga, the well known casual game creator have filed a lawsuit against the company behind ‘Bang With Friends'. They said it was a breach of trademark against their ‘with friends' software.

Zynga said in a complaint which was filed with the Federal District Court in San Francisco “This is a case about illegal free riding on recognized and valuable intellectual-property rights. The ‘WITH FRIENDS' brand is strong and has been associated with one company — Zynga.”

Zynga have a series of social games including ‘Crumble with Friends', ‘Hanging with Friends' and ‘Chess with Friends'.

The complaint adds “Defendant's ‘Bang With Friends' app caught a free ride on the coattails of Zynga's famed WITH FRIENDS family of marks and gained notoriety while simultaneously causing consumer confusion and falsely associating the ‘Bang With Friends' app with Zynga.”

The Bang with Friends app is an application for iOS and Android platforms that will help Facebook users find friends who are ‘down to bang'. It may sound like a nasty niche product, but the Facebook oriented application was released in January and by May it had 1 million people using it. The founders of the software said they made the software during one night after consuming a lot of ‘Red Bull and Vodka'. Classy.

Apple have since removed the software from their App Store, however it is still available on the Google Play Store.

Kitguru says: Zynga are demanding that the ‘Bang With Friends' title is removed from the software and they are also seeking damages, which haven't been detailed.

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