Month: June 2011

Categories
Disputes News Trademarks WIPO

Pharmaceutical Product Development wins case to get PPD.com from its owner

ppd

Updated June 27, 2011, 2:53 PM:  The decision has been published on the WIPO website. 

**

It is a baffling case.  A global contract research organization providing drug discovery, development and lifecycle management services, will get the three-letter domain ppd.com, according to a WIPO UDRP decision handed down this week ordering the name transferred.

Pharmaceutical Product Development, Inc (who uses the web address ppdi.com) filed a complaint against Damian Macafee (a.k.a James M. Van Johns) back in April 2011 which caught the attention of other bloggers around the domain industry like Elliot Silver who wrote, “I really hate seeing UDRP filings for three letter .com domain names. In my opinion, three letter acronyms usually have many different meanings, and it’s generally tough to say who would have a right to own the name.”

Details of the WIPO UDRP decision have yet to be released, but are expected to be posted online in the next few days.

Damian Macafee owns over 1,000 domain names, many of which are three-letter .com and .net names. 

Over the last 10+ years, Damian’s had to fight a number of disputes. 

He lost the case to keep baseballweekly.com starting back in 2000, then went on to lose oxford-online.com, resicom.com, attworldnet.com, fredricksofhollywood.com, carrefour.net, micorosft.com, walkman.net, and adm.org.

Although the WIPO panel determined that it was “somewhat questionable” adm.org was registered in bad faith, Damian still lost the case because the panel asserted he had registered and used domain names in bad faith in the past.

The only case he’s successfully defended to date at WIPO involved fcc.org in 2004.  The complaint was filed by Family & Children’s Center Inc.  Damian won after the panel found that the complainant had not established that he had registered the domain name in bad faith.  The complainant was also not the owner of a registered trademark or service mark for FCC.

Damian Macafee, I imagine, hasn’t been too happy about domain disputes filed against him over the years.  Screenshot history for the domain name ppd.com and many others in his portfolio display the words “F**k You”, according to DomainTools.

I’ve reached out to Damian to discover more about the case and will update this post if I receive a response.

Categories
Movies News

Sedo brokers the sale of Skeletor.com, is a Masters of the Universe film getting ready to start production?

Skeletor

It appears the domain name skeletor.com has been sold. 

The Whois record, which was updated this week, now displays Sedo’s Domain Transfer Escrow Service.  Because the domain name is currently in Sedo’s Transfer Service, it won’t be known immediately known who purchased it.  Or, for that matter, what they have in store for the name of the villain in the Masters of the Universe franchise.

There is one possible theory that hasn’t received any press in the past year; that Columbia Pictures (owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment) is getting ready to start production on the Masters of the Universe film, after years of no failed attempts. 

Last April, screen writers were added to the Columbia Pictures “Masters of the Universe” project, so with any luck, production will begin soon.

Sony Pictures owns the domain name skeletorthemovie.com, which it first registered in 2009.  It currently re-directs to the Movies page on SonyPictures.com.

Here’s a look at the current Whois record for Skeletor.com.

Domain Name: SKELETOR.COM
Registrar: MONIKER

Registrant [705163]:
        Domain Transfer Escrow Service
        Sedo.com
        One Broadway, 14th floor
        Cambridge
        MASSACHUSETTS
        02142
        US

Domain servers in listed order:

        NS1.PARKED.COM
        NS2.PARKED.COM

        Record created on:        2006-11-11 14:34:06.0
        Database last updated on: 2011-06-22 05:18:08.63
        Domain Expires on:        2011-11-11 14:34:06.0

Categories
News Trademarks Video Games

Will Zynga give The Sims on Facebook a run for its money with Familyville?

Zynga Familyville

Electronic Arts is making some big waves in the social gaming world this week amid rumors the company is buying PopCap Games a direct competitor of Zynga.  But that’s not the only news regarding EA and social gaming.  In the fierce competition for the next top game title on Facebook, EA announced that it would be bring the world’s most popular life simulation game “The Sims” to the world’s biggest social network “Facebook”.

You read it here first: After some domain name sleuthing, I have strong evidence that Zynga will answer EA’s challenge with its own yet-to-be released life simulation game on Facebook called Familyville.

That’s right Zynga fans, along with other blockbuster titles like Cityville and Farmville, Zynga may be launching Familyville sooner than later in response to EA’s announcement in early June.

Some Whois history and recent name server changes on the domain name Familyville.com are what lead me to believe that Zynga is working on its next mega hit.

Whois History

In March 2011, ownership of the domain familyville.com changed from its previous owner (Internet Computing) to  Rob Holmes – founder & CEO of IPCybercrime, the very same company that acquired the domain cityville.com on behalf of Zynga for $38,225 at Moniker in June 2010. 

Cityville went on to become the first game in Facebook history to reach 100 million monthly active users.

Here’s a look at the Whois record from March 2011.

Domain name: familyville.com

Administrative Contact:
   –
   Rob Holmes (rob @ipcybercrime.com)
   101EParkBlvd.#400
   Plano, TX 75074
   US

In late April though, the Whois record switched again, this time to GoDaddy’s Domains by Proxy, a Whois privacy service regularly used by Zynga for many of its domain names such as rewardville.com.

Nameserver change

Another change occurred just this week, with the domain name changing from its previous name server to COTDNS.NET, the same nameserver where many of Zynga’s most popular domains reside, including rewardville.com and hangingwithfriends.com.

cotdns

The Sims Social on Facebook hasn’t been released just yet.

But if this rumor of mine proves to be true, EA may want to speed things up a bit on Facebook. 

As of today, Zynga has not filed for a trademark on the word familyville in the U.S. or Europe.  But there’s nothing odd about that;  Zynga didn’t file for a trademark on Empires and Allies until shortly after its launch. 

With social gaming competition becoming fierce, Zynga has gotten smarter with its trademark filings and domain name registrations.

Discussion: The Business Insider, Kotaku, Kotaku Australia, Techmeme, Gamezebo, VentureBeat, Games.com, and Pocket Gamer.

Categories
Disputes Movies National Arbitration Forum News Trademarks

Domain dispute over ManofSteel.com, film set for release in December 2012

Man of Steel

Updated July 20, 2011:  Turns out the complainant in the case was DC Comics, not Warner Bros.  A single-member panel has ruled in favor of DC Comics and ordered the domain name to be transferred.  Details here.

**

It appears Warner Bros wants the domain name ManofSteel.com for its big film project set to release in December 2012.

A complaint (case no. 1395018) was filed with the National Arbitration Forum (“NAF”) this week.  Though the complainant isn’t known at this time, DC Comics a subsidiary company of Warner Bros has owned the trademark on “The Man of Steel” since the 1980s. 

Over the last ten years, Warner Bros has filed (and won) a number of domain disputes including chasingsuperman.com, batman-costume.com, gilligansisland.com, harrypotterzone.com, justice-league.com, and dozens more.  The company’s claims were denied twice, once over djbatman.com and the second time over daisydukes.com which is owned by Rick Schwartz.  Rick Schwartz won the case after Warner Bros had not satisfied its burden of proof to establish bad faith registration and use under paragraph 4(a)(iii) of the Policy.

In the case of ManofSteel.com, which is currently registered to a LBR Enterprises in California, chances are the domain name will be transferred to Warner Bros. if they are the complainant.

The company also doesn’t own TheManofSteel.com, but no dispute has been filed as of yet.  The domain name is currently listed for sale at Sedo for $300 USD, a cheap price compared to what the company may have to pay in legal fees (should it file a complaint) for a legal dispute that is not guaranteed to go in their favor.

Categories
News

Facebook Music rumors cause Universal to register domain UMGFacebook.com

Facebook logo

Following rumors that Facebook will be integrating music streaming service Spotify into its application, Universal Music Group which signed a deal with Spotify earlier this month, registered the domain name UMGFacebook.com on June 21, 2011, two days after GigaOM’s story first broke.

Although nothing has been officially confirmed by Spotify or Facebook, Universal Music Group appears to be the first of the major record companies to hint at the imminent plans.

Here’s a look at the WHOIS record of Universal’s latest domain purchase, UMGFacebook.com.

Registrant:
  Universal Music Operations Limited (UNIVERSA1915)
  364-366
  Kensington High Street
  London, London, W14 8NS
  GB
  
  Domain name: umgfacebook.com  
  
Technical contact:
  Hostmaster, NetNames (NH114491)
  Netnames Ltd
  3rd Floor Prospero House
  241 Borough High St.
  null, London, SE1 1GA
  GB
Record created:           2011-06-21 16:57:09
Record last updated:      2011-06-21 16:57:15
Record expires:           2013-06-21 16:57:00