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Sony Pictures registers ‘Bring Them to Justice Game’ domain names

Sony Pictures

Sony Pictures has tipped its hand on a forthcoming game called “Bring Them to Justice”, after registering several domain names on December 22, like bringthemtojusticegame.com (Whois).

All the domains were registered through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor.

The game, which hasn’t been officially announced, may simply be a mobile game published by Sony Pictures Digital, part of Sony’s US mobile phone games division.

The domain names, five in total, include:

bringthemtojusticegame.com 
bringthemtojusticegame.net  
bringtojustice.net  
bringtojusticegame.com  
bringtojusticegame.net

At the time of this story going online, none of the domains resolve to a web page.

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Disputes Movies National Arbitration Forum News Trademarks Video Games

Following Sony Pictures, Ubisoft gets its own domain for Assassin’s Creed movie

Assassin's Creed the movie

Back in October, shortly after Variety broke the news that Sony Pictures was in the final negotiations with Ubisoft for an Assassin’s Creed film, I wrote about Sony Pictures registering more than a dozen related domains like assassinscreedfilm.com and assassinscreedthefilm.com.

There still is no official website for the film, which could be released as early as 2014, but now Ubisoft has secured ownership of the web address: assassinscreedthemovie.com.

The domain name exchanged hands earlier this week, after Ubisoft contacted the previous owner by e-mail and informed them that they had rights to the name.

Wanting to avoid legal troubles, the owner (whom I spoke with by e-mail) quickly transferred the domain to Ubisoft, saving Ubisoft the hassle of filing a domain dispute.

To date Ubisoft has filed only one complaint over a domain. 

In 2010, it won a case (Claim Number: FA0912001298869) for princeofpersia.com, after filing a dispute with the National Arbitration Forum.

Also this past week, Ubisoft Entertainment filed three separate trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Serial Number: 85482572, Serial Number: 85482583 and Serial Number: 85482580.

Here’s a quick look at the goods and services covered in the trademark filings.

“Entertainment services, namely, continuing television programs and interactive television programs featuring comedy, drama, live-action, and animation, broadcast over television, satellite, audio, and video media; presentation of live stage show performances, presentation of live show performances by costumed characters, and presentation of live theatrical performances; production and distribution of motion pictures”

“Audio and video recordings featuring live-action entertainment; audio and visual recordings featuring live-action entertainment; Pre-recorded DVDs, digital versatile discs and digital video discs featuring live-action entertainment”

“printed matter, namely books featuring works of fiction; printed matter, namely comics featuring works of fiction”

As of the time of this story going online, assassinscreedthemovie.com doesn’t resolve to a website.

(Photo of the short YouTube movie Assassin’s Creed: Lineage via Ubisoft)

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Movies News Video Games

Assassin’s Creed movie a done deal, according to Sony Pictures’ domains

Assassin's Creed Movie

Several tech blogs and news site have been buzzing for the last 24 hours since Variety broke the news that Sony Pictures was in the final negotations to develop a film franchise based on Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed” videogame series.

While the deal hasn’t been officially confirmed by Sony or Ubisoft, that didn’t stop Sony Pictures from registering over a dozen “Assassin’s Creed” movie domain names such as assassinscreedthefilm.com.

All of the domain names were registered on October 20, a day before the Variety story was published.

Here’s a look at the full list of domain names:

assassins-creed-movie.com
assassins-creed.net
assassins-creedmovie.com
assassinscreed-film.com
assassinscreed-film.net
assassinscreed-movie.com
assassinscreed-movie.net
assassinscreed-thefilm.com
assassinscreed-thefilm.net
assassinscreed-themovie.com
assassinscreed-themovie.net
assassinscreedfilm.com
assassinscreedfilm.net
assassinscreedthefilm.com
assassinscreedthefilm.net
assassinscreedthemovie.net

Although the domains were registered before either company has even announced a partnership, Sony Pictures must have been pretty confident that the deal was certain. 

That, or the deal was already done.

Discussion: Kotaku, WhatCulture!, Game Rant, CVG, N4GVG247, In Entertainment, Factornews, Hobbynews, GamingBolt, Joystiq, Game Informer, MeriStation, The Sixth Axis, G4Jeux Video.frCine Premiere, Videogameszone, Play.tm and Digital Trends

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Movies News

Sony Pictures to produce John Burdett crime novels? 29 domains registered

John Burdett

It looks as if Sony Pictures has struck a deal with British crime novelist John Burdett to produce as many as four films including Bangkok Tattoo, Bangkok Haunts, The Godfather of Kathmandu, and his next novel set to be released in 2012 in the UK, Vulture Peak.

Sony Pictures registered nearly three dozen domain names this past Friday, like BangkokHauntsmovie.com, TheGodfatherofKathmandu.com, BangkokTattoomovie.com, and VulturePeakmovie.com.

Bangkok 8, the first book in the murder mystery series, was optioned by Millennium Films back in 2007, but filming was apparently cancelled.

While the domain registrations are certainly an indication of upcoming plans, as of yet, neither Sony Picture nor John Burdett have officially announced a partnership.

I’ve reached out to John Burdett for comment on this story through his web site at John-Burdett.com, and will update this post if I hear back.

Here’s a look at the full list of domain registrations.

bangkok-haunts.com
bangkok-haunts.net
bangkok-tattoo.com
bangkok-tattoo.net
bangkok-tattoomovie.com
bangkokhaunts-movie.com
bangkokhaunts-movie.net
bangkokhaunts.net
bangkokhauntsmovie.com
bangkoktattoo-movie.com
bangkoktattoo-movie.net
bangkoktattoomovie.com
godfatherofkathmandu-movie.com
godfatherofkathmandu-movie.net
godfatherofkathmandu.com
godfatherofkathmandu.net
godfatherofkathmandumovie.com
kathmandugodfather.com
kathmandugodfather.net
thegodfatherofkathmandu-movie.com
thegodfatherofkathmandu-movie.net
thegodfatherofkathmandu.com
thegodfatherofkathmandu.net
thegodfatherofkathmandumovie.com
vulture-peak.net
vulturepeak-movie.com
vulturepeak-movie.net
vulturepeak.net
vulturepeakmovie.com

Update 1, October 16th, 4:14pm EST: John Burdett replied by e-mail: “Sorry, no comment at this stage.”

Discussion: WhatCulture! and Dark Horizons

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Movies News

Film on Apple’s co-founder will be titled Steve Jobs, according to registrations

Steve Jobs

Sony Pictures recently acquired the rights to the biography on Apple’s late co-founder and chairman simply titled “Steve Jobs”, by Walter Isaacson.

Originally called iSteve: the Book Of Jobs, Isaacson eventually persuaded his publisher Simon & Schuster to change the book title.

It now appears the film will keep the same title of the non-fiction book when it’s released in theaters, according to eight recent domain name registrations by Sony Pictures made on October 11, 2011, that include domains like SteveJobs-film.com and SteveJobs-thefilm.com.

The full list of registrations include: stevejobs-film.com, stevejobs-film.net, stevejobs-movie.net, stevejobs-thefilm.com, stevejobs-thefilm.net, stevejobs-themovie.net, stevejobsfilm.net, and stevejobsthefilm.net.

Sony Pictures did not secure the domains for SteveJobsfilm.com or SteveJobsmovie.com. 

Both of those domains were registered back in late August by Stoneport LLC, a web design company out of Virginia, shortly after Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple.  Each web address resolves to an empty business profile page provided by Network Solutions.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, WhatCulture! and 9to5mac

(Photo of Steve Jobs showing off iPhone 4 via Matt Yohe)