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News Trademarks Video Games

Activision files trademark for Skylanders Sidekick: First look at new characters

Skylanders sidekicks

Activision’s legal department has filed a trademark application for “Skylanders Sidekick”.

On April 18, 2012, Activision submitted the filing (Serial Number: 85601600) with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

The “Goods and Services” in the application cover, “Games and toys, namely, action figures, collectable toy figures, collectable toy figures having radio frequency identification (RFID) chips or tags, action figures having RFID chips or tags”.

No first use date is noted in the application.  But, there’s a good explanation for that.

While nothing has been officially announced about “Skylanders Sidekick”, I did find Frito-Lay sell sheets online that describe a program taking place in June that partners with Skylanders to deliver an exclusive offer.  The promotion allows consumers to redeem a free “Skylanders sidekick” character with purchase.

The screen shot above was taken from the presentation and shows the sidekicks and their names: Mega Stealth, Super Trigger, Big Grunt, and Mighty Fin.  However, according to the slide, the real names are to-be-determined.

Earlier this month, Activision and Frito-Lay announced a multi-phased promotion extending through May 5, 2012.

The promotion with the Sidekick characters appears to be part of Phase 2.  According to the sell sheets, the in-store timing is June 18th – July 13th 2012.

Below is another screen shot from the presentation for the lobby/perimeter kit.

Skylanders Sidekick lobby kit
Talking about this story:
darkSpyro, VG247 and Nintendo World Report

Categories
News Trademarks Video Games

Crowdstar files trademark applications for Aquarium Party, Fish Party video games

Aquarium Party

According to recent trademark filings with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, social gaming company Crowdstar has plans to release one, possibly two, new games around the initial success of its Happy Aquarium game that it launched way back in September 2009.

On April 17, 2012, Crowdstar Inc. submitted a trademark application (Serial Number: 85600513) for Aquarium Party.

Days before the Aquarium Party filing, Crowdstar also filed a trademark application (Serial Number: 85596416) for Fish Party.

The “goods and services” in both filings cover:

Downloadable computer game software for use on wireless devices and computers; computer-game software, video game software, and computer game application software; interactive-video-game programs; electronic game software and electronic game application software that may be accessed via the Internet, computers and wireless devices; computer software to enable uploading, posting, showing, displaying, tagging, blogging, sharing or otherwise providing electronic media or information regarding the fields of virtual communities, electronic gaming, entertainment and general interest via the Internet or other communications networks with third parties

As of today, Crowdstar has made no announcement about Aquarium Party or Fish Party.

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News Video Games

Years after release, Crytek acquires Crysis.com domain: price unknown

Crysis 3 video game

Crytek first released the first-person shooter video game Crysis back in November 2007 and recently revealed details about Crysis 3, which is set to be released in the spring of 2013.

Now, more than four years later after releasing the first game in the trilogy, Crytek has acquired the domain name Crysis.com, which had been registered years before the game’s launch.

According to Whois records, Crytek GmbH now owns the domain name.

The name transferred this week from its previous owner “Modern Empire Internet Ltd.” who had owned the name since at least 2004.

Crytek doesn’t own Crysis2.com or Crysis3.com.  The owner of the domain Crysis3.com is currently offering it up for sale, along with Crysis3.org.

I’ve reached out the previous owner of Crysis.com to learn more about the deal and will update this post if I hear back.

[UPDATED on April 23, 2012:. Crysis.com has started resolving to a web page.  Screen shot below.]

Crysis.comDiscussion: Bölüm Sonu Canavarı

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Disputes National Arbitration Forum News Technology

Google takes control of the domain GooglePlay.com [UPDATED]

GooglePlay.com

Back in early March, Google filed a complaint (Case No. 1432449) over the domain name GooglePlay.com with the National Arbitration Forum.

The complaint came shortly after the launch of its new entertainment hub Google Play.

Despite a ruling not yet being published, part of the Whois information for the name was updated this week and now reflects Google Inc. as the registrant.

Google registered several googleplay domain names in late February through the brand protection company MarkMonitor, but wasn’t able to get its hands on GooglePlay.com at the time since it was already registered.

At the time of this story, GooglePlay.com still doesn’t direct users to the official Google Play website.

Because a decision hasn’t been posted online, it’s unknown whether the owner decided to give up the name or the name was ordered transferred by a panel.  If a decision is posted, it’ll likely be available here.

[Update 1 on May 18, 2012:. The Whois record has now been fully updated and reflects Google as the owner, however the domain still doesn’t resolve to the Google Play website.]

Talking about this story: Android Police, 9to5Google and Marketing Land

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News

A look at Mike Mann’s 13,000+ domain names that he hand registered this week

Domain Market

Mike Mann, the founder of several online companies like SEO.com and Phone.com, drew a lot of attention this week after telling fans on his Facebook page that he bought thousands of domain names that weren’t registered and were available to anyone that wanted them.

The story, first reported by blog DomainGang, has drawn a lot of interest from the domaining community.  The story was followed by The Domains’ editor and domain investor, Mike Berkens, who reported that Mann had bought 11,000 domains, which led to a long discussion in the comments section.

As you may already know, it turns out the number is actually around 13,000 new domain registrations.  That, according to Mann.

“13,140 is the real total from yesterday, a few thousand the day before, and today will be normal at about 300,” wrote Mann on his Facebook page on April 18.

Then, early this morning, Mann provided another Facebook update saying, “The whole batch of 13,000 cost about 100K. 10% of those names start with letter A including below. So is this group worth $10,000? Then you will know if this is a good investment overall. Also I am not claiming this is my best investment, just clean up work that will be somewhat profitable in the long run.”

If you’re curious as to what domain names Mann hand-registered this week, here’s nearly the entire list for your reading convenience, which I pulled from the DomainTools’ site Daily Changes.