Adopt Me! sued for trademark infringement

Will one of the top Roblox games have to change its name?

There’s an interesting new lawsuit that was filed against the owners of Adopt Me!

Just about everyone knows that Adopt Me! is one of the most popular games on Roblox, with over 35 billion visits.

The plaintiff in this new lawsuit, Impulse Communications, sued the owners of Adopt Me! for trademark infringement and about nine other related claims.

Impulse alleges that it has owned and operated the website AdoptMe.com since the late 1990s.

And that it operates its own online virtual pets game called Adopt Me.

Impulse claims that since it was the first to use the name “Adopt Me” in commerce, that it owns the common law trademark to “Adopt Me,” and that the owners of the Roblox game shouldn’t be allowed to use the same name.

Now here’s where it gets interesting.

The owners of the Roblox game allege that Impulse’s main business is the sale of internet domains. On Impulse’s website it lists hundreds of domain names for sale, with titles ranging from bigorgies.com to washcarpets.com.

The owners of the Roblox game allege that about four years ago, Impulse put a notice on its website that it was shutting down Adoptme.com.

They believed that the plaintiff had abandoned its rights to the name, so the owners of the Roblox game Adopt Me! filed an application to register their own trademark for Adopt Me!. That application was granted.

Four years later Impulse filed this lawsuit.

So what will happen?

The case is in its very early stages. Most cases like this settle.

I’ll keep an eye on it and post updates.