Archive for January, 2012

Google quietly launches Women Entrepreneurs on the Web initiative

J.B. | January 29, 2012 | Comments (1)

Google employee Pooja Srinivas appears to be one of the people behind Google’s latest web initiative called “Women Entrepreneurs on the Web” (or WeOW, for short).

Srinivas, a resident of India, registered several domains earlier this month like Womenentrepreneursontheweb.com (Whois), which transferred to Google’s ownership this past week and a website is already up and running.

What is the Women Entrepreneurs on the Web initiative?

Well, according to the site, “Women Entrepreneurs on the Web is an initiative aimed at helping women-owned businesses grow their online presence. This initiative is currently being piloted in India.”

Any women-owned business is eligible for the program, as long as one of the founders is a woman and as part of the program, the people involved will learn to use various web-based technologies in their day to day business.

Google has been launching a number of initiatives online in the past year aimed at getting more people online, like the Google-led program “Get Your Business Online” dedicated to helping local businesses in various U.S. states.

Discussion: @DashBurst

Microsoft files complaint over another fake Halo 4 Beta site [UPDATED]

J.B. | January 28, 2012 | Comments (9)

[Update 2 on March 7, 2012:. Microsoft Corporation won the rights to Halo4Beta.net. On March 6, 2012, a single-member panel ordered the domain name transferred from Edward Lee (the respondent) to Microsoft (the complainant).]

[Update 1 on March 5, 2012:. Microsoft is going after another phony Halo 4 Beta site. A complaint has now been filed (Case Number: 1432610) with the National Arbitration Forum over Halo4Beta.biz (screenshot) The domain name is owned by a resident of Illinois according to Whois records. I've reached out the owner for more information and will update this post if I hear back.]

Original story on January 28, 2012:. Nearly two weeks ago, David Ellis of 343 Industries, the company that is developing Halo 4, warned Halo fans through Twitter that if you see a site claiming to allow you to sign up for a Halo 4 beta it’s a fake.

The site in question was hosted at Halo4beta.net (pictured above), and now Microsoft’s legal team is taking action by going after the domain name.

A complaint (Case No. 1426106) has officially been filed with the National Arbitration Forum.

Apparently wanting to avoid legal troubles after gaming sites went abuzz with David Ellis’ warning, the operator of Halo4beta.net took the website down, but that’s not going to be enough for Microsoft.

Microsoft can fully expect to have the National Arbitration Panel order the name be transferred, in what should be an open-and-shut case.

Stay tuned as I’ll be posting the details of the decision as soon as they’re available, likely no more than a few weeks from now.

Halo 4 has a holiday season 2012 release date.

Last June, Microsoft acquired the domain name Halo4.com for an undisclosed amount of cash, rather than filing a domain dispute. When I asked the seller about the selling price/negotiations with Microsoft, the seller told me via e-mail, “The only term of the agreement that I can disclose is that I can’t disclose any terms of the agreement.”

Discussion: GameSpot, Kotaku, Joystiq, GameSpot, Hard OCP, Game Informer, Eurogamer.net, VentureBeat, Blue’s News, ITProPortal, Game Rant, VG24/7, Digital Spy, Piki Geek, Strategy Informer, The Escapist, Neowin.net, WebProNews and 411mania

Rosemcgowan.com domain name ordered transferred to Rose McGowan

J.B. | January 27, 2012 | Comments (0)

Actress Rose McGowan filed a complaint (Case Number: 1419570) over the domain name <rosemcgowan.com> with the National Arbitration Forum back in December 2011.

Now a three-member panel has ordered the name transferred to Rose McGowan, after finding the domain identical to the common law service mark in her name, that the respondent had no rights or legitimate interests in the domain, and that the domain had been registered and is being used in bad faith.

Respondent is using the website . . . to redirect Internet users to a website that contains information and advertisements . . . . Respondent presumably profits from this use of the confusingly similar disputed domain name in the form of click-through fees. Additionally, Respondent’s use of Complainant’s mark creates a likelihood of confusion regarding the source of the content resolving from the disputed domain name. The Panel finds this is an attempt by Respondent to profit from the goodwill associated with Complainant’s mark. Therefore, the Panel finds Respondent’s attempt to profit from its use of the confusingly similar disputed domain name constitutes registration and use in bad faith pursuant to Policy ¶4(b)(iv).

The full details of the ruling have been released and can be read online here.

SkylandersPatriots.com domain registration by Activision adds to mystery

J.B. | January 26, 2012 | Comments (0)

Almost a week after I first reported that Activision had purchased several “Skylanders Giants” domain names like skylandersgiants.com and skylandersgiantsgame.com, it appears the video game company has registered another new Skylanders domain, further adding to the mystery of the company’s future plans for the Skylanders brand.

On January 24, it appears Activision registered the domain name SkylandersPatriots.com (Whois), through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor, a service that over half the Fortune 100 rely on for online brand protection.

The “Skylanders Giants” story created quite a buzz among gaming and tech sites like Joystiq, Wired.com, and Giant Bomb, but as of today, there has been no official word from Activision.

At the time of this story, skylanderspatriots.com does not resolve to a website.

[Update 1 on January 26, 2012: Reporting Gamer suggests the registrations may be for a Skylanders sports game pitting the Giants vs Patriots.]

Discussion: Wired UK

Academy Award nominated actor Ryan O’Neal wins domain ryanoneal.com

J.B. | January 26, 2012 | Comments (0)

A single-member panel with the National Arbitration Forum has ordered the domain name ryanoneal.com be transferred to Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominated actor Ryan O’Neal.

Ryan O’Neal was represented by Howard H. Weller of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP, who filed the dispute (Claim Number: FA1112001419531) against Ronald Garcia in early December 2011.

Ronald Garcia had owned the domain name since 2003 and recently had begun redirecting the web address to ronadgarcia.webstarts.com.

Sandra J. Franklin, Panelist, found that all three elements required under the ICANN Policy to transfer the domains were satisfied, including registration and use in bad faith, stating that the offer to sell the domain name was evidence of bad faith registration.

Full details of the ruling, which was issued on January 5, have been posted online.

(Mugshot image of Ryan O’Neal via The Smoking Gun)

Take-Two registers Death to Founders, Vox Populi domains for Bioshock Infinite

J.B. | January 25, 2012 | Comments (1)

It appears Take-Two Interactive Software is going to ramp up online marketing for its upcoming first-person shooter Bioshock Infinite that is set to be released later this year.

On January 23, 2012, the video game publisher registered the domains DeathtotheFounders.com (Whois), DeathtotheVox.com (Whois) and DeathtotheVoxPopuli.com (Whois).

While the registrant of each name is hidden behind Whois privacy, the domain servers listed (NS.TAKE2GAMES.COM, NS6.ROCKSTARGAMES.COM, NS5.TAKE2GAMES.COM) belong to Take-Two Interactive.

For those not familiar with Bioshock Infinite, the Founders are the ruling party of Columbia, a city built by the US Government in the late 1800s to serve as a floating world’s fair. The Vox Populi (which means “Voice of the People” in Latin) are the group opposing the Founders.

At the time of this story being published, each of the web addresses returns a 403 error page on BioshockInfinite.com.

Discussion: This is Xbox and The Bioshock Wiki

(Image of Bioshock Infinite via official website)

Electronic Arts files trademark applications for ‘Trouble Makers’ game

J.B. | January 23, 2012 | Comments (1)

Electronic Arts filed two trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on January 18, 2012, for the term “Trouble Makers”.

Serial number 85519088 covers: “Entertainment services, namely, providing an on-line computer game; Provision of information relating to electronic computer games provided via the Internet.”

Serial number 85519072 covers: “Computer game software; Downloadable computer game software via a global computer network and wireless devices; Video game software.”

At the time of this story going online, EA has not made an official announcement. However, if EA has any serious interest at all in developing a “Trouble Makers” game and launching it online, it may have to open its wallet wide to get the matching web address.

Troublemakers.com has been listed for sale on the web for years. The current asking price is $50,000 USD or best offer.

Care to guess what EA has in store for “Trouble Makers”?

Could it be the next installment of Need for Speed rumored to be out later this year?

Discussion: Game Informer and This is Xbox

Facebook registers ‘newsroom’ domains, is a social news website on the way?

J.B. | January 23, 2012 | Comments (5)

Facebook has had a busy week with domain names.

On January 18, the company registered a slew of domains with “FB Origin” in the name. It followed up those purchases with “timeline movie maker” domains.

Facebook hasn’t officially been confirmed as the buyer of the timeline domains since the registrant is hidden behind Whois privacy, but the names were registered through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor and the web addresses re-direct users to the Facebook Timeline page.

Now the social networking giant has bought up “Facebook Newsroom” names like facebook-newsroom.com.

Altogether, the company registered three domains: facebook-newsroom.com (Whois), facebook-newsroom.net (Whois), and facebook-newsroom.org (Whois).

It’s unknown what Facebook will do with its latest domains, but if it has anything to do with the word newsroom, maybe the plan is to launch a social news website where users submit content, similar to Reddit.

In case you’re wondering, facebooknewsroom.com (missing the hyphen) was registered by a resident of Kansas in 2011.

[Update 1 on January 23, 2012 at 3:53pm EST: Turns out these domain registrations aren't all that exciting. I just received an e-mail from The OutCast Agency (one of Facebook's PR teams) who say, "The domains you reference are part of an upgrade to Facebook's press room, not part of a new product."]

Discussion: Mediagazer, Fast Company, Journalism.org, 10,000 Words, All Facebook, NBC Bay Area, Marketing Land, Index, @ckanal, Simply Zesty, mediabistro.com, @PRNewswire, @cschweitz, brandchannel.com, and The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum

Microsoft acquires ClicktoHump.com and other Halo related domain names

J.B. | January 21, 2012 | Comments (3)

Microsoft has made some interesting domain name acquisitions this month that might create excitement for Halo fans.

And I’m not talking about names like Halo 13 or Halo Kinect 3D, I’m talking about names like ClicktoHump.com and GetBattleReady.com.

According to Whois records, Microsoft is now the owner of several Halo related domains, that were first registered years ago.

Although the domains may be nothing more than part of the company’s intellectual property strategy to protect its Halo brand, they are certainly interesting.

Here’s a look at the company’s latest Halo related domain acquisitions.

[Update 1 on January 23, 2012: I've discovered many more domains acquired by Microsoft via Melbourne IT DBS and added them to the list above like itshumpday.com and ridebrokeback.com.]

Discussion: The Next Web, GeekWire, Business Insider, Neowin.net, MSNBC, halo.bungie.org, @PatrickKlepek and This Is Xbox

(Image of Halo player repeatedly crouching while standing over a dead enemy via Halo Wikia)

Zynga sports games like football may be coming soon as more hints are dropped

J.B. | January 21, 2012 | Comments (1)

If you’ve been itching to play sports games developed by social gaming giant Zynga, they may actually be closer to launch than you think.

In the past 12 months, the company has made moves indicating social sports games may be under development, like the hiring of EA Sports Creative Director Mark Turmell, who was also the lead designer of NFL Blitz (picture above) while he was at Midway.

Zynga’s latest move: acquiring the domain name ZyngaSports.com.

I did a little domain sleuthing today and found that the domain ZyngaSports.com (Whois) was transferred this week to the intellectual property law firm, Keats McFarland & Wilson, who of course acts as Zynga’s attorneys in IP matters such as that of the Blingville dispute.

So which sports game will be first out of the gate?

It’s anyone’s guess, but if I had to pick it would be Zynga Football.

And yes, Zynga owns ZyngaFootball.com, ZyngaFootball.net, and even ZyngaFootball.org.

It acquired those web addresses in April 2010 with the help of internet brand protection company MarkMonitor, along with over 500 domains based on existing and possibly future games.

The names which were transferred over a two day span in April, are too many to list here in this post, but included domains like animalvillegame.com, bountyville.com, casinoblitzgame.com, coasterville.net, crimevillegame.com, friendempires.com, hotelvillegame.com, ranchville.info, zyngadopewars.com, zyngadragonwars.com, zyngaglamourlife.com, and of course, zyngafootball.com.

While the imminent launch of Zynga Sports is purely speculation, it looks like a very good possibility.

Though not an exhaustive list, you can see hundreds of the domains Zynga acquired in April 2010 here.

Discussion: Kotaku, Games.com, Gawker, All Facebook and Gamezebo