Category: Disputes

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Disputes News WIPO

Toys “R” Us, which acquired the internet domain Toys.com in 2009, files dispute for nearly two dozen domain names

Geoffrey the Giraffe

Geoffrey, LLC, the company that owns and operates Toys”R”Us has filed a domain dispute over nearly two dozen domain names with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization. 

The disputed domains, which use the “R” Us mark at the end of the web address, cover a wide variety of products and services ranging from insurance, to attorneys, even to tattoos.  

Geoffrey LLC has won disputes in the past over domain names that clearly involved cybersquatting.  Names such as: wwwtoysrus.com, wwwtoyrus.com, babyrus.com, and babysrus.com.  However, the company hasn’t been so lucky when the domain names being disputed, weren’t outright abusive registrations. 

In 2006, the company lost a dispute at WIPO over pensareus.com and pensrus.com, after the panel found that the dispute was more appropriate for the courts rather than UDRP, which it stated is intended for the narrow class of cases involving cybersquatters.

The domain names named in the latest dispute include:

bestcreditcardsrus.info
carinsurancequoterus.info
cheaptermlifeinsuranceratesrus.info
childrensbedroomfurniturerus.com
dentalinsuranceplansrus.com
desklampsrus.com
digitalproductsrus.com
edmontonlawyerrus.info
floridainjurylawyerrus.info
freeonlinegamesrus.com
healthinsurancerus.info
homebusinessopportunityrus.com
injuryattorneyrus.info
insurancerus.info
makingmoneyonlinerus.com
personalinjurylawyersrus.com
stringtrimmersrus.com
tattoosrus.info
therusgroup.com
watchbandsrus.com
wholelifeinsurancerus.info

Toys “R” Us and domain names

Toys “R” Us made internet headlines when it purchased the domain name toys.com for $5.1 Million at auction in 2009, beating out National A-1 in a competitive auction that went back and forth for hours, according to TechCrunch.

The purchase of toys.com, secured the domain name a spot in the top 10 domain sales of all time according to Domaining.com, which keeps track of the Top 500 sales in history.

Today, toys.com is a separate website from the Toys “R” Us site and is used to post a wide range of unadvertised and exclusive deals, not found anywhere on the Toys “R” Us network of internet properties.

According to news sources, Toys “R” Us is planning to go public sometime later this year.

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Disputes News Video Games WIPO

Zynga wins dispute for domain name (zygnagiftcards.com turned over to game network)

Zynga Gift Cards
Zynga, the gaming company that purchased the Cityville.com domain for $38,225 in June 2010 and turned it into a record-breaking game on Facebook, has been successful in getting the domain name zyngagiftcards.com.

In early February, Zynga filed a domain name dispute with WIPO, as reported here on Fusible.  On March 31, the Whois records switched from Joanna Hewett to Zynga Game Network Inc.  It appears the name was transferred before a decision was even reached by a WIPO panelist. 

The company also filed a dispute over zyngaworld.com, a case that has yet to be decided.

Zynga to unveil plans for zyngagiftcards.com?

As I mentioned in my previous coverage, in March 2010 TechCrunch reported Zynga rolled out gift cards at a number of major retailers in the U.S. 

Zynga refers to their “gift cards” as “game cards“, but the company doesn’t own the domain and hasn’t filed a dispute with WIPO.

Zynga gift cards could be even bigger business as the company has its targets set on the world. 

In March, the company announced it set up a studio in India.  In the same story, it was reported Zynga Game Cards would be launching in more than 500,000 outlets in Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand

Categories
Disputes News WIPO

Google Inc. files domain name dispute over Google TV typo — googletg.com

Google TV

Google Inc. has filed a complaint over the domain name googletg.com with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization. 

The domain name appears to be a typo of Google’s own googletv.com, which re-directs to the Google TV home page located at http://google.com/tv.   According to Compete, a site that provides free information for every web address on the internet, the typo doesn’t even get enough traffic to be statistically relevant. 

A look at Whois records shows the name currently registered to a, xuyecheng. 

Over the years Google has filed dozens of cases at WIPO and won.  As far as back as 2000, Google won wwwgoogle.com, but the company also goes after its other brands like vietnamadwords.com which it won in 2010.

Googletv Domain Typos

A number of variations of googletv.com such as googletv.info and googletv.org are registered to Google, however, many of the typos are not. 

The Domain Typo Finder provided by DomainTools, gives a clue as to what has been registered by individuals or organizations other than Google.

Once you type in the url googletv, results show dozens of typos already registered, and in many cases, to the same registrant. 

For example, “Song Bin”, is the registrant for wwwgoogletv.com, gogletv.com, googetv.com, gooletv.com, and gooogletv.com.

Another possibility for the domain dispute, if not over a typo of googletv.com, is over it’s country domain google.tg, for the country of Togo.

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Disputes News

Charlie Sheen gets control of CharlieSheen.com domain name, launches website

Charliesheen.com

A week ago, I was the first domain blogger to write about the celebrity domain name, charliesheen.com and celebrity domain disputes, since the former star of Two and a Half Men had begun his public meltdown. 

As I had written in the story, Jeff Burgar of Alberta Hot Rods, was the registrant of the name, and had been involved in a number of celebrity domain disputes. 

Now, Jeff Burgar no longer owns the name, Charlie Sheen does, and he already has a website online.

Jeff Burgar had been involved in a number celebrity domain disputes.  Cases had involved Pamela Anderson who won pamanderson.com, Ashley Judd who won ashleyjudd.com, catherinecookson.com (transferred), ianfleming.com (transferred), direstraits.com (transferred), tomcruise.com (transferred), larryking.com (transferred), jrrtolkien.com (transferred), and michaelcrichton.com (transferred). 

The web address charliesheen.com (according to DomainTools) is registered to Evan Spiegel of LAVELY & SINGER PC (Attorneys-At-Law) who represents other Hollywood celebrities.

Earlier today, the celebrity gossip news (blog) Celeb Dirty Laundry, wrote a story about the unveiling of the new site.  As Celeb Dirty Laundry pointed out, Charlie tweeted about gaining control of the domain name on Twitter:

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/charliesheen/status/46405133042589696″]

Charlie Sheen online achievements

In case you missed the recap of some of the recent Charlie Sheen online antics/achievements that was posted in my previous story, here they are again.  Now you can add winning control of charliesheen.com to the list.

– 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.

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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.