Print
Email
Print Edition Stories
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Scvngr slapped with trademark suit by Bridal Guide publisher
By Rodney H. Brown
Private investors eye online education opportunities
UMass President Jack Wilson on Entrepreneurship
How Massachusetts is landing stimulus funding
Riding high on having just announced its international expansion, Scvngr Inc. of Cambridge has been hit with a trademark infringement lawsuit by RFP LLC of New York over the name of some diamond ring scavenger hunts it had set up for jeweler clients.
According to the suit filed Oct. 27 in the Southern District Court of New York, RFP, which publishes Bridal Guide magazine, had trademarked the phrase “Race for the Rock” in regards to scavenger hunts for diamond rings in 2006. The suit alleges that Scvngr used the same phrase in as many as six different scavenger hunt challenges in places such as Peoria, Ill., Lexington, Ky., and Milwaukee. RFP is seeking at least $500,000 in damages and all of the profits Scvngr made on the six allegedly infringing activities.
The suit alleges that in one case, Scvngr’s client also asked that it stop using the “Race for the Rock” name in its game and promotional material for the game, after receiving word from RFP’s lawyers about the trademark. According to the suit, Scvngr continued to use the term in website domain names that it registered as recently as September and October of this year.
Scvngr was unavailable for comment this morning.
Scvngr today announced that it was expanding around the globe and had been given early access to the Google Places API to be the location database for its international expansion. Google is one of the main backers of Scvngr through Google Ventures, which was one of the two investors in its $4 million funding round in December 2009, along with original investor Highland Capital Partners.
Founded in December 2008, Scvngr initially had college campuses and museums as clients for its interactive mobile-phone text message-based tours. It quickly found another niche in jewelry stores that used its technology to make modern scavenger hunts for a diamond ring. Since then, the company has morphed into a consumer location-based game platform that offers challenges for people to win local rewards, such as restaurant and event ticket discounts.
Comments
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
RSS Feeds
