In what can only be a gut-wrenching moment for the developers of aquarium simulations games like Happy Aquarium and My Fishbowl, Zynga received a trademark to the name “FishVille” last week. This almost certainly means that Zynga will launch a version of the game, and quite likely grow it quickly.
The trademark comes as the company enjoys the successful launch ofCafé World, a restaurant simulation that directly challenges Playfish’sRestaurant City. Café World grew by 10 million usersin a week, through Zynga’s methods of cross-promotion with its othergames, advertising on Facebook, and building increasingly high-qualitygame-play.