'Words With Friends' Sues 'Bang With Friends'

Zynga makes the popular apps "Words With Friends" and "Chess With Friends." But it does not make the popular app "Bang With Friends." The former are board games. The latter helps Facebook friends hook up for casual sex. Now the company is suing Bang With Friends Inc, claiming it tried to cash-in on Zynga's "With Friends" trademark, reports Bloomberg. The lawsuit seeks to bar the company from using the name "Bang With Friends" on any app in the US, and an unspecified amount of damages.

Bang With Friends claims to have 1.1 million users and 200,000 "matches" under its belt, reports the Guardian. It works by allowing people to identify which Facebook friends they want to hook up with. If two friends mark each other as potential hookups, both are notified of the other's interest. "We heard through media reports that Zynga has filed a trademark infringement claim with respect to the 'with friends' part of our name," Bang With Friends Inc tells Wired. "As a technology company, we take intellectual property seriously, and will evaluate the case in detail once we receive a copy. Regardless, we continue to be focused on making our users happy, so that they can help each other be happy." (More Zynga stories.)