Activision knows a thing or two about ‘Call of Duty’ domain names (or do they?)

You might remember when news broke that Activision had registered a number of domains such as callofdutyfuturewarfare.com and codfuturewarfare.com.  The website superannuation had announced a fresh new batch of names registered by Activision shortly after the company purchased the names in May. 

Mary Tuck, one of the company’s attorneys, is not only responsible for registering the names, but she also files trademarks on behalf of the company according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office web site at uspto.gov.  The same day the company registered the names on May 11, it also filed for the trademarks.

The superannuation article linked to the Whois records on the popular domain company site – DomainTools and it sparked a flurry of stories across gaming and technology sites. 

Out of those dozen or so names though, nothing yet has been developed.  In fact, none of the names resolve to any kind of website at the time of this story. 

While rumors swirl about Activision’s next Call of Duty game, the company seems to be improving its understanding of domain names. 

Call of Duty Domains

Call of Duty Black Ops, its latest title released earlier this month, is being considered a game-changer with sales shattering records all over the world.  Activision does own callofdutyblackops.com, but it failed to register other variations.

If you notice the domains registered in May, the company picked up a number of variations of possible titles.  For example, instead of just registering futurewarfare2.com – the company also registered codfuturewarfare2.com and callofdutyfuturewarfare2.com for a possible Call of Duty Future Warfare game. 

No surprise, futurewarfare.com had been registered for years before, so Activision didn’t get its hands on the simplest version of the name.  The name is owned by BuyDomains.  And if shorter and memorable names are any indicator of value, Activision should probably buy the name now while its listed for a reasonable price of $3,788 (before someone else does).

Blackops.com, another name it doesn’t own, has seen a huge spike in traffic to its web site over the last several months, which is likely to grow with the game’s popularity.

Trademark infringing domains

When it came to registering domain names for its most successful title to date, Activision missed registering names like codblackops.com – a habit it’s now getting into by registering domain names with ‘cod’ (as in, Call of Duty) in the front. 

With codblackops.com, the owner Stephen Girvan currently has a web site online that has seen a surge in traffic. 

Visit the site, and click on the home page, and you’ll be taken to an article entitled: ‘Video Game Giants are Bullying Me’. 

The article discusses Stephen’s dispute with Activision over domain names, which started after: ‘he created a “clan” website in January to allow him and his friends to post scores online of their favourite game, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.  At the beginning of March, Stephen, of Maryhill, says he renamed the website to codblackops.com after asking members to come up with a name.’

At this point what comes of the dispute isn’t known, but one thing is for sure: Activision is starting to get better at registering domain names. 

My only advice is that the company should purchase FutureWarfare.com while it can. 

The phrase ‘Future Warfare’ is generic, and used among military and military scholars.  But that hasn’t stopped Activision from filing for a trademark – which it did on May 11, 2010 (along with Call of Duty Futurewarfare).