Categories
News Video Games

Who’s planning a Big War game? CSC’s newest domains aren’t your average buys

Big War Game

An unnamed organization using the domain services of Corporation Service Company (CSC), a company that caters to some of the world’s most successful organizations, has registered a slew of domain names that hint at the possibility of a massive multiplayer war game called: Big War (BigWarGame.com).

The domain names – eight in total – were all registered on July 27, 2011 and have one thing in common: they all have “Big War” in the name.

No details on the company behind the registrations as of yet, since the domains are listed in CSC’s name.  But you can bet the company is a major player in the gaming industry, as CSC’s clients include many of the Top 500 companies in the U.S. and many of the top 2000 public companies in the world.

Here’s a look at the domain registrations.

http://whois.domaintools.com/bigwargame.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/bigwargame.net 
http://whois.domaintools.com/bigwarthegame.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/bigwarthegame.net 
http://whois.domaintools.com/bigwar-game.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/bigwar-game.net 
http://whois.domaintools.com/big-war-game.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/big-war-game.net 

I’ve done some checking around on trademarks and haven’t found any new filings, but it’s likely the company behind these domains will keep the game a closely guarded secret until it’s ready for launch.

Categories
News

1800Flowers adds Conversations.com to its portfolio, new brand in the works?

conversations

Are plans underway for 1-800-Flowers to launch a new internet brand to add to its portfolio?

On Sunday, July 31, the floral and gift company took ownership of the domain name conversations.com from its previous owner Ted Fest, who had owned the property since December 2009.

The sales price is currently unknown, as the acquisition appears to have gone through the corporate identity protection company CSC Corporate Domains Inc.

Here’s a look at the Whois record which reflects the change in ownership. 

Registrant:
      1-800-FLOWERS.COM, INC.
      Domain Administrator
      One Old Country Road, Suite 500
      Carle Place, NY 11514
      US
      Email:  domainadmin @1800flowers.com

   Registrar Name….: CORPORATE DOMAINS, INC.
   Registrar Whois…: whois.corporatedomains.com
   Registrar Homepage: www. cscprotectsbrands.com

   Domain Name: conversations.com

      Created on…………..: Thu, Oct 15, 1998
      Expires on…………..: Sun, Oct 14, 2012
      Record last updated on..: Sun, Jul 31, 2011

1-800-Flowers has a number of brands including celebrations.com, winetasting.com, cheryls.com and more.

At the time of this story, conversations.com re-directs to celebrations.com.

I’ve reached out to the seller for comment, and will update this story if I hear back.

Categories
News

Arizona State University wins SunDevils.com domain from naturists

Sparky

The web address sundevils.com won’t be such a shock to visitors soon enough.

The Arizona Board of Regents, on behalf of Arizona State University has won a dispute for the domain name after filing a complaint (case no. 1393853) with the National Arbitration Forum (“NAF”) in late June.  The decision was published online today.

The URL sundevils.com, in case you happen to type it into a browser (WARNING: Still NSFW), re-directs visitors to the home page of “Diablo Sun Devils”, a naturist club that displays adult content.

According to the case details, the owner of the domain failed to respond to the complaint.

The panelist, Honorable Paul A. Dorf (Ret.), ordered the domain be transferred after finding that the domain was identical and/or confusingly similar to the Sun Devils trademark, the use of a disputed domain name to display or link to adult-oriented material was further evidence of a lack of rights and legitimate interests in the domain name, and that redirecting to adult-oriented content demonstrated bad faith.

You can read all the gory details of the decision here.

Discussion: Deadspin and Startribune

(Photo of Sparky via Arizona State University)