Month: August 2012

Categories
News Trademarks Video Games

EA files trademarks for ‘Jet Set Detectives’, privately registers domain

Jet Set Detectives

Two new trademark filings by Electronic Arts have popped up on the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website.

On July 31, 2012, EA submitted applications (Serial Number: 85691049) and (Serial Number: 85691046) for ‘Jet Set Detectives’.

The filings cover “Entertainment services, namely, providing an on-line computer game” and “Computer game software; Downloadable computer game software via a global computer network and wireless devices; Video game software”.

EA also appears to have secretly registered the matching domain JetSetDetectives.com (Whois) back in June through the internet brand protection company CSC Global.  Despite the owner’s name being marked private, EA is likely the registrant as they are a well known client of Corporation Service Company, which protects many of the world’s most valuable brands.

Upcoming EA titles include Overstrike (pictured above), Crysis 3 and Dead Space 3, but the video game company hasn’t made any announcement about ‘Jet Set Detectives’.

Talking about this story: Joystiq

(Image of upcoming Overstrike game via EA.com)

Categories
News Video Games

PopCap Games registers domain names for unannounced ‘Bejeweled Frenzy’

Bejeweled Frenzy

There hasn’t been any news of a new Bejeweled game being developed by the folks at PopCap Games, but that doesn’t mean one isn’t in the works.

On August 2, PopCap Games registered the domain names BejeweledFrenzy.com (Whois), BejeweledFrenzy.net (Whois) and even BejeweledFrenzy.org (Whois), hinting that the EA-owned PopCap Games may be planning to unveil something.

Titles in the Bejeweled series include Bejeweled, Bejeweled 2, Bejeweled Twist, Bejeweled Blitz and Bejeweled 3.

The company’s last release of a new title was Bejeweled 3 in 2010.

Bejeweled Frenzy certainly has a nice ring to it, but for now, the game will have to remain speculation until PopCap makes an announcement.

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

Talking about this story: Game Informer

(Image of Bejeweled 3 via PopCap.com)

Categories
Disputes News WIPO

Riot Games files complaints against League of Legends porn domain names

League of Legends porn sites

Riot Games, the maker of League of Legends, the most played PC game in North America and Europe, has filed two separate complaints with the World Intellectual Property Organization over the domain names LeagueofLegendsPorn.com (Case Number: D2012-1516) and LeagueofLegends.co (Case Number: DCO2012-0024).

While LeagueofLegendsPorn.com displays nothing more than a coming soon page with a message that reads, “Future home of something quite cool”, LeagueofLegends.co redirects unsuspecting users to a Spanish porn site.

According to Whois records, LeagueofLegendsPorn.com is currently registered to a resident of Temple Terrace, Florida and was created on February 2, 2012.

In July 2010, dotCO the country-code top-level domain for Colombia became available for registration globally.  That’s when LeagueofLegends.co (Whois) was first registered.  According to a rough traffic estimate by Compete, LeagueofLegends.com receives nearly 2 million visitors per month, so you can imagine there are plenty of unwary users typing LeagueofLegends.co (without the ‘m’) only to find themselves greeted by a not-safe-for-work adult website.

These disputes aren’t the first for Riot Games.

In June, Riot secured the rights to the scam site support-leagueoflegends.com (notice the hyphen in the web address).

FACEBOOK:  Become a fan of Fusible.com

To win these disputes, Riot Games 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.

Based on the circumstances, both cases should be open and shut in Riot’s favor.

(Image of Battle Bunny Riven via LeagueofLegends.com)