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Featured News Video Games

Square Enix registers ‘Blood Masque’ domains – BloodMasque.com, .net

Blood Masque

Two new domain registrations this week suggest Square Enix has a new title in the works.

On January 29, 2013, Square Enix registered the domains BloodMasque.com (WHOIS) and BloodMasque.net (WHOIS).

Beyond the names, there is no information at this point about the title “Blood Masque”, so it’s anyone’s guess as to what the company will develop.

Given the name “Blood Masque”, it sounds like it will have to do with vampires, but of course, this is purely speculation.

At the time of this story being published, neither domain name resolves to a web page.

Talking about this story: Joystiq, Game Informer, Tweakers.net, We Got This Covered, NeoGAF, Eurogamer.it, IGN, Gematsu, Nintendo Everything and Eurogamer.pt

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News Video Games

Ubisoft planning a Splinter Cell: Shadownet spin-off? Domains registered

Splinter Cell SHADOWNET

Although Ubisoft is planning to release Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist in August 2013, it appears the video game company may have something in the works for SHADOWNET, the quick and agile spies that are one of the playable teams in the Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory multiplayer modes.

Earlier this week, Ubisoft registered the domain names SplinterCellShadownet.com (WHOIS) and SplinterCell-Shadownet.com (WHOIS).

A quick online search shows that fans of Shadownet have been asking for a spin-off for years.

Though the domain registrations may be nothing more than a vigilant Ubisoft protecting its intellectual property, it’s sure to get some Shadownet fans excited.

Like most of Ubisoft’s newly registered names, both SplinterCellShadownet.com and SplinterCell-Shadownet.com resolve to a parked page on Gandi.net.

Talking about this story: gram.pl, PC Games, Play3-Live and VG247

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News Video Games

WiiU.com domain expires (Nintendo still doesn’t own it long after announcement) [UPDATED]

WiiU.com

UPDATE February 19, 2013: According to DNW, Nintendo has filed a cybersquatting complaint with World Intellectual Property Forum over the domain name: Wiiu.com.

ORIGINAL STORY: Nintendo announced the Wii U more than a year and a half ago at E3 2011.  Incredibly, the company made the announcement without owning the domain name WiiU.com.  Fast forward months later to the video game console’s launch in November 2012, and people hoping to find more information about the console instead found themselves on a web site with Shopping.com affiliate offers that included links to a variety of entertainment products.

In an interesting turn of events, the domain name, which was likely raking in some decent earnings, expired on January 13, 2013, according to WHOIS records.

As of today, WiiU.com has been replaced with a parking page indicating the name has expired.

Wiiu.com domain expired

The domain, which is privately registered, has attracted a good amount of visitor traffic.

According to a very rough estimate by the analytics site Compete, WiiU.com had nearly 7,000 unique visitors to its website in November 2012, and more than 6,000 visitors in December.

The name is already listed on the domain name auction marketplace SnapNames with a minimum bid of $69.  Two people have already placed bids.

SnapNames

At this point, it’s unknown whether the domain’s current owner is intentionally allowing the name to expire or simply forgot.  It’s also possible that Nintendo has sent the owner a cease-and-desist letter.

Surprisingly, Nintendo hasn’t filed a domain dispute through UDRP arbitration, which it has done before for names like nintendo-gamecube.com and i-nintendo.com.  In 2011, Nintendo secured rights to the domain SuperMario.com after filing a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Before you say, “How does a major company not own the matching domain to one of its products?”

Nintendo isn’t the only company guilty of this.

Neither Sony, Nintendo, nor Microsoft own the domains for their next gen consoles.

Sony doesn’t own Playstation4.com, and Microsoft, whose next console’s name hasn’t officially been decided, doesn’t own Xbox720.com (Whois) or Xbox8.com (Whois).

Talking about this story: GameZone

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News Video Games

EA buying up Battledrome domains, game originally published in the nineties

Electronic Arts logo

Electronic Arts has been quietly buying up “Battledrome” domains, according to recent name acquisitions made through the brand protection agency Corporation Service Company (CSC).

In early January, the domain Battledrome.com (WHOIS) switched owners from a resident of Australia to CSC.  Though it’s “officially” unknown who is really behind the dotcom, because CSC is currently the listed registrant, you can bet it was Electronic Arts using CSC as an intermediary in order to keep the price lower.

But there’s no doubt Electronic Arts is working on a project called “Battledrome”.  With the dotcom acquired, on January 16, EA went ahead and registered a slew of related domains through CSC, like Battledrome.net (WHOIS), Battledrome.org (WHOIS), Battledrome.us (WHOIS), Battledrome.co.uk (WHOIS), Battledrome.eu (WHOIS), and Battledrome.info (WHOIS).

So, what is Battledrome?

Battledrome

In the mid-nineties, Battledrome was a videogame published as part of the Metaltech series, where players commanded giant HERCs in head-to-head combat over a network.

The game wasn’t developed or published by EA, but the game sure seems like a good candidate for online battle.

At the time of this story, Electronic Arts has made no official announcement and none of the domain names resolve to a web page.

Talking about this story: playm.de

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Disputes News Technology WIPO

Twitter files dispute over Twitter.org, domain being used for scam surveys

Twitter.org

Twitter has filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over the domain name Twitter.org.  Today, people who type Twitter.org into their internet browser are sent to a web page that looks confusingly similar to the popular microblogging site.  A landing page appears that tries to lure people into taking a scam survey.

WIPO Case Number D2013-0062, which became active this week, is one of less than a dozen domain disputes that have been filed by Twitter and the first for the company in 2013.  Every single case has ended in Twitter’s favor thus far, in some instances without a decision even being handed down by an arbitration panel.  The case for TwitterSearch.com, for example, was terminated, but eventually transferred to Twitter’s control.

Its last dispute over the typo domain Twittter.com (with an extra ‘t’), filed in late 2011 with WIPO, was very similar to this one in that unsuspecting users were lured to a site that looked confusingly similar to the official Twitter site.   The user was then guided through a series of questions that attempted to gather personal information by promising free gifts like an iPad 2.

The surveys that are shown when people try to go to Twitter.org are more current in technology though, offering gifts like the iPhone 5.

According to WHOIS historical records, the domain Twitter.org was registered in the mid-2000s, only months after the dotcom was registered.  The name stayed with its owner, a resident of New York, up until mid-2011 when it began changing hands.

Before redirecting users to a variety of web addresses serving up online surveys, the name was parked and displayed third party advertisements.  Here’s a screenshot of Twitter.org back in 2006.

Twitter.org

As of right now, Twitter.org (WHOIS) is privately registered through Moniker, so it’s unknown who currently owns the name.

Cases like these are usually slam dunks in favor of the complainant.  Last year at this time, Google won a similar case involving YouTube typo domain names.  Not long before that, LinkedIn filed a dispute over LinkdIn.com which redirected users to survey scams.   The company eventually took ownership of the name and withdrew its complaint.

As with any Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP), to win the dispute, Twitter must demonstrate that all of the elements enumerated in paragraph 4(a) of the Policy have been satisfied:

(1) that the disputed domain name registered by the Respondent is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the Complainant has rights; and

(2) that the Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the disputed domain name; and

(3) that the disputed domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith

Stay tuned for updates…

Talking about this story: Marketing Land and Domain Name Wire