Month: March 2011

Categories
News Trademarks Video Games

Domain News Updates: Zynga, Frank Schilling, 2011 Top-selling domain, Worldwide Media, Internet Gaming

 postboard

Here are a few quick updates on stories posted here on Fusible in the last month. 

Gamegos, buyer of $500,000 domain Gamesforgirls.com– Gamegos, which I revealed last month as the buyer of the top selling domain name in 2011 so far to date, finally has a landing page online for its prized domain.  Well, sort of.  The one-page website says nothing more than, “Games for Girls -gamesforgirls.com”.  Garry Chernoff who sold the name, also had the top publicly reported domain sale for Feb. 28, 2011 – Sun. March 6, 2011, according to DN Journal, with the sale of doorhardware.com for $85,000.  While it may be old news to you, what you might not know is that Garry’s company NetIncome Ventures purchased doorhardware.com for a mere $15,655 back in 2008 via NameJet.

Zynga breaking stories– As a blogger, I like to look for breaking stories, and Zynga has been a source of many breaking stories here on Fusible.  My story on Zynga filing for a trademark on the word “ville” in the European Union got lots of reaction online with several major news sites and technology blogs picking  up the story – ranging from CNET to Wired and TechDirt to Games.com.  Hundreds of people have retweeted the story on Twitter and “Liked” it on Facebook.

The latest updates on New Jersey Internet Gambling Bill– Though Governor Chris Christie, vetoed what could’ve made New Jersey the first U.S. state to make online gambling legal, there’s still hope. “Sponsors of the legislation are talking about massaging the language to make it more acceptable to the governor rather than circling the wagons for an override vote, and everyone seems to think the issue is headed to New Jersey voters in the fall,” writes Larry Josephson for Covers.com.

Frank Schilling’s NAMedia updates its social networking experiment, again– I’ve been reporting on Frank Schilling’s social media experiment for months now.  The web app has changed names one time already from note.com to chatr.com.  Now this week, the website has changed names again – this time from chatr.com to postboard.com.

Mike Berkens’ Worldwide Media sells VisitBerlin.com for $230,000, sitting on a gold mine– As reported in February, domain investor and blogger Mike Berkens has sold $725,300 worth of domain names recently.  And those are just the sales that don’t fall under an NDA (non-disclosure agreement).  But his portfolio could be worth a whole lot more.  Earlier this month Mike wrote a story about Sony’s announcement of Move.me, it’s Move development platform.  But as he noted, Sony doesn’t own the domain, he does.  Move.me was acquired for just $4,200 during Sedo’s November .ME auction which netted over $400,000 in sales.

Categories
News Trademarks Video Games

Zynga files for trademark on the word “Ville” in Europe

Zynga ville

Zynga ville

On March 1, 2011, Zynga filed for a trademark on the word: ville.  The trademark was filed with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), the official trade marks and designs office of the European Union. 

Zynga’s trademark representative is Rouse, a specialist in international IP business whose client list ranges from Honeywell and BP to Christian Dior and Starbucks Coffee.

Zynga IP

Could this be Zynga’s response to a recent lawsuit? 

Or is the company doing whatever it takes to protect its “ville” line up of games on Facebook?

In January, TechDirt broke the story that the social network gaming developer, sent a cease and desist letter to a West Virginia company that is developing a game named Blingville for Facebook, alleging trademark infringement for its use of the word “ville”.  The letter resulted in Blingville filing a lawsuit against Zynga. 

While Zynga doesn’t own the trademark on “ville” and hasn’t filed one yet with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, not filing for a trademark in the U.S. first is not necessarily uncommon, as seen with its trademark filing for Rewardville. 

Since I broke that story about Zynga filing for the Rewardville trademark which appeared on TechCrunch back in January, I’ve been checking back regularly with OHIM to see if another application was filed.  And this past week, it was.

You can take a look below at the “ville” trademark application from the OHIM website.
  Ville trademark filed by Zynga
Zynga Inc Ville Trademark

Goods and Services

According to the application filed, Zynga is seeking three different classifications in “goods and services”, including for “online computer and electronic games”.

9: Scientific, nautical, surveying, photographic, cinematographic, optical, weighing, measuring, signalling, checking (supervision), life-saving and teaching apparatus and instruments; apparatus and instruments for conducting, switching, transforming, accumulating, regulating or controlling electricity; apparatus for recording, transmission or reproduction of sound or images; magnetic data carriers, recording discs; automatic vending machines and mechanisms for coin-operated apparatus; cash registers, calculating machines, data processing equipment and computers; fire-extinguishing apparatus; computer game software; video game programs; computer software platforms for social networking; interactive video game programs; downloadable electronic game programs and computer software platforms for social networking 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 in the fields of virtual communities, electronic gaming, entertainment, and general interest via the Internet or other communications networks with third parties; magnetic coded gift cards.

25: Clothing, footwear and headgear; clothing, namely, t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks, jackets, button down shirts, polo shirts, dresses, skirts, jeans, shorts, sweatpants, neckties, aprons, belts, gloves, jerseys and headwear.

41: Education; providing of training; entertainment; sporting and cultural activities; entertainment services, namely, providing online computer and electronic games, enhancements within online computer and electronic games, and game applications within online computer and electronic games; providing online reviews of computer games and providing of information relating to computer games; providing an Internet website portal in the field of computer games and gaming; entertainment services, namely, providing virtual environments in which users can interact through social games for recreational, leisure or entertainment purposes.

How will it play out?

How will Zynga’s attempt at trademarking the word “ville” play out for its line up of current and future “ville” properties?

Will it result in Blingville losing its name?

Will it result in other companies losing their names? 

No one will likely know anytime soon, but news of the trademark is sure to create some bad publicity for Zynga.  In February, the company settled a lawsuit filed by Digital Chocolate over the use of “Mafia Wars”.

“Though the companies settled the lawsuit, neither disclosed terms for the settlement, according to The Recorder. The full list of charges against Zynga included federal/common law trademark infringement, federal/state/common law unfair competition, false designation of origin, and cyber-squatting”, wrote Eric Caoili for Gamasutra.

While Zynga does own the domain zyngaville.com, which it re-directs to its homepage, the company doesn’t own ville.com.  The domain name is currently registered to the domain company Marchex.

Discussion: The Inquisitr, Techmeme, TechDirt, Wired, Games.com News, Business Insider, Silicon Republic, CNET, Gamertell, and Inside Social Games.

Categories
Disputes News Video Games WIPO

Another Zynga domain name goes live — Rewardville.com

rewardville

The last time I wrote about Zynga and domain names, the company had filed disputes over the domains zyngagiftcards.com and zyngaworld.com with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization.  Before that, the company had sent a cease & desist letter to the developers of Blingville, which resulted in Blingville responding with a lawsuit. 

While these disputes have yet to be resolved, Zynga is making more headlines over the domain name rewardville.com this week — a name that helped get this blog a mention in TechCrunch.

Zynga’s RewardVille Now Available: Everything you need to know

So, what’s the news this week on Rewardville?

Brandy Shaul, a writer for Games.com, announced yesterday that Rewardville is now available. 

“…we told you there was a way to force RewardVille to spawn on your Facebook account, but what if you didn’t have any friends that had posted a link to their prizes that would allow you to join Zynga’s rewards program? FarmVillePro has discovered that there is a single, universal, link that you can click on the activate the program on your account, and we can confirm that it does indeed work,” writes Brandy.

The story includes the link to get Rewardville when you connect through Facebook, which continues to work.

If you’re a fan of Zynga’s Facebook games, there’s no shortage of tips, tricks and information over at Games.com.

Here’s a look at a Rewardville video produced by Zynga that sprang up online yesterday.

Categories
Disputes News WIPO

CharlieSheen.com — The case of celebrity domain names and legal disputes

Charlie Sheen

The Charlie Sheen drama that has been all over the media, no doubt, is creating interest online, which naturally means that people are typing in the web address, charliesheen.com, on the internet.  In January 2011, the same month Charlie Sheen was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center by paramedics, the domain name saw a spike in visitor traffic according to Compete.com, an online service that provides free information for websites. 

So, what’s going on with possibly one of the hottest domain names of the moment? 

I haven’t seen any other news sites or blogs cover this story and there is a whole lot of backstory, not only on the domain name itself, but on the owner, who has a taste for great domain names, including celebrity domains like pamanderson.com.

Here’s a look at the charliesheen.com domain, and some related stories that have sprang up in the past week as a reaction to Charlie Sheen’s venture online with Twitter and more.

The domain name: charliesheen.com

The plain and simple answer to what’s up with the domain name is that there is no website online, just a HTTP 404 Not Found web page.  Charlie Sheen also doesn’t own the right to the domain: charliesheen.com, a person by the name of “Jeff Burgar” of the company “Alberta Hot Rods” is the registrant according to Whois records provided by DomainTools.   The very same Jeff Burgar of “Alberta Hot Rods” who owns some great domains, like Tammy.com, AbrahamLincoln.com, StevieNicks.com, Blondes.com, as well as over 1,000 more domain names including, yes, Hotrods.com.

The owner: Jeff Burgar of Alberta Hot Rods and domain disputes

The owner, is also the very same “Jeff Burgar” of “Alberta Hot Rods” who has had to respond to a number of domain disputes at WIPO, most of which involved high-profile celebrity domain names he registered in the nineties, and most of which were lost and transferred to the complainant. 

Cases have involved Pamela Anderson who won pamanderson.com, Ashley Judd who won ashleyjudd.com – the list goes on and on – catherinecookson.com (transferred), ianfleming.com (transferred), direstraits.com (transferred), tomcruise.com (transferred), larryking.com (transferred), jrrtolkien.com (transferred), and michaelcrichton.com (transferred).  For a look at all the cases involving “Alberta Hot Rods”, go here and type “Alberta Hot Rods” in the Named Respondent search field.

But Jeff’s Alberta Hot Rods was successful in a few domain disputes.  The case of the common first name domain, lana.com, saw the complainant denied.  Alberteinstein.com was denied to The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  And the complainant for scorpions.com was denied the name.

The re-direct and website: celebrity1000.com

Take a jump in Archive.org’s Wayback Machine, and the name charliesheen.com re-directed at one point to the website, Celebrity1000.com (also offline), which served as a fan network starting back in 1996 which included a directory of celebrity websites ranging from David Haselhoff to Demi Moore.  

Celebrity1000.com, is also owned by Jeff Burgar to this day.  And the site has been named in several decisions around “registration and use in bad faith” handed down by WIPO after complainants like Pamela Anderson, pointed out the site was misleading to internet users, and celebrity domains had been stockpiled and used to further the fan network of Celebrity1000.com and its advertising revneues.

Interestingly enough, JeffBurgar.com (which is privately registered) redirects to WIPO.org, the World Intellectual Property Organization.  I can’t say whether the same Jeff Burgar who owns charliesheen.com owns jeffburgar.com, but it’s certainly an interesting use of a name.

The fate of the domain name: charliesheen.com

While Charlie Sheen hasn’t filed a domain dispute over the name at this point, if it ends up in a legal dispute before a panel of WIPO decision-makers, it’s all but certain that charliesheen.com will be transferred to Charlie Sheen.

Recap of Charlie Sheen online

Here’s a quick recap of stories related to Charlie Sheen now to taking to the internet with his antics.

– Twitter: Since joining Twitter on March 1, 2011, Charlie Sheen who tweets using the name @charliesheen, has nearly 2 million followers at the time of this story.  Guinness World Records  announced he set a new record for fastest time to 1 million followers, which he achieved in just 25 hours and 17 minutes.

– Prank: CharlieSheen.com for $275,000:  A person posted a video of himself fooling his friend into believing that he registered charliesheen.com for $12, then tricking him into thinking they’re selling it for $275,000.  Watch how it unfolds.

Categories
News

Calvin Ayre looking for feedback on $3.5 million domain name Slots.com

Slots.com

On Wednesday, Calvin Ayre’s Bodog issued a press release.  The company is looking for feedback on its Slots.com web site which recently launched into beta. 

“In this early launch period, Slots.com, is seeking feedback and giving customers the chance to be part of the growth plan by shaping the future of the site. The initial slots offering will see significant additions over the months as Slots.com reacts to the directives of its players,” reads the opening of the release.

Shortly after the press release went online, Jamie Hinks a writer for Calvin Ayre’s Tablog posted a story that talks more about the domain, and less about the website, entitled: Slots.com needs you!

“For a site that generates 35.1million hits on Google for “Slots” it’s little wonder that the amount paid was the most in 2010 and one of the top ten ever. Only second to Casino.com, Slots.com’s European Head of Marketing, Charlie Goodenough, believes that Slots.com is the best gaming domain in the world, better than even Poker.com because there are no strong brands in the space.”

Gambling domain names are an exciting space.  As I wrote earlier in the week, the deal for gambling.com is expected to complete in the second quarter, and Calvin Ayre has been rumored to be a possible buyer.  Also, later today, Governor Chris Christie is expected to make a decision on New Jersey’s internet gambling bill.

UPDATE:  Governor Chris Christie has conditionally vetoed the bill.  Hope isn’t lost though, as Bill Beaty reports over at CalvinAyre.com.