Zynga, the social gaming company responsible for the creation of popular games like "Words With Friends" and "Chess With Friends" is suing an adult social hookup app tactlessly titled "Bang With Friends." The company is citing use of the trademark "with friends" phrase.
According to a report from Bloomberg, "Bang With Friends," an application that matches Facebook friends anonymously for casual sex, registered its domain name some time last year. The complaint by Zynga against the hookup app was filed in federal court in San Francisco.
According to the compaint, the company "selected the name 'Bang With Friends' for its casual sex matchmaking app with Zynga's game trademarks fully in mind."
In response to the complaint, Bang With Friends said: "As a technology company, we take intellectual property seriously, and ill evaluate the case in detail once we receive a copy."
Zynga made a big name for itself in the mobile social gaming world when it launched "Words With Friends" in 2009. Since that time it has spawned a variety of Facebook games such as Mafia Wars, FarmVille in addition to a family of "With Friends" games.
Zynga is seeking a court order that would ban the company from using the name Bang With Friends as well as requesting an unspecified amount in unspecified damages.
Bang With Friends is available in the App Store as well as the Google Play store for Android. Once users download the app they can select their most attractive Facebook friends. After that, if two users are on each other's list the app will send each person an e-mail alerting them that the other is interested in a casual hookup.
Zynga is probably hoping to avoid any and all bad press after shareholders panicked after the company announced it would be getting back to basics and not following through with a plan to establish real-money gambling on some of its games. With the brand in trouble, it makes sense that the company is trying to do away with any potentially unsavory apps that could link back to the Zynga name.
