Category: Disputes

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Disputes National Arbitration Forum News Video Games

Warcraft IV? Blizzard Entertainment files complaint over HeroesofWarcraft.com

Heroes of Warcraft

Over the past year, Blizzard Entertainment has made a number of domain acquisitions including StarCraft.com, nearly 15 years after the game’s first release.  The company also registered the name WarcraftBattles.com just last month for unknown reasons.

Now, Blizzard Entertainment is attempting to acquire the domain HeroesofWarcraft.com, only instead of having to pay what may be a lot of money demanded by its current owner, the company has filed a complaint (Case No. 1470639) with the National Arbitration Forum in hopes of the name being ordered transferred to their control.

Will “Heroes of Warcraft” be the title of the next Warcraft?

According to WHOIS records, HeroesofWarcraft.com is currently registered to a resident of the United Kingdom.  Originally hidden behind Go Daddy’s Domains By Proxy (DBP) service, Go Daddy removed the privacy service on the domain in the past week, revealing the identity of the owner.

It’s unknown what Blizzard has planned for “Heroes of Warcraft” or why the company had to file a dispute, but the company hinted at something more for Heroes of Warcraft back in September when it registered the name HeroesofWarcraft.co.uk (WHOIS).

WHOIS: HeroesofWarcraft.co.uk

Warcraft III started out as a game called Heroes of Warcraft, but was ultimately called Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.

Blizzard Entertainment is no stranger to the UDRP, having filed its first case back in 2007 over worldofwarcraft.es and winning.

To win this dispute, the company 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

I will update this post as more information becomes available.

Talking about this story: gamona.de, Joystiq, Escapist Magazine, games.on.net, Buffed.de, ComputerGames.ro, PC Games, InsideGamer, Gamenguide, Gameranx, NeoGAF, GamingBolt, Strategy Informer, VG247 and Eurogamer.net

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Disputes Video Games WIPO

Florida man wanted $200,000 for ‘League of Legends Porn’ dot-com domain name

League of Legends

In late September, a decision was handed down by the World Intellectual Property Organization in a domain complaint brought by Riot Games against the owner of LeagueofLegendsPorn.com.

As reported earlier in the week, the ruling went in favor of Riot Games (the complainant), and as a result, Florida man Michael Brown (the respondent) was ordered by a single-member panel to transfer the name.

Now details of the WIPO decision have been published online, including an exchange between both parties in which Brown asked for a “transfer” fee of USD 200,000.00.

When Brown first responded to the complaint, he stated he had no intentions of doing anything with www.leagueoflegendsporn.com and that he had “forgot” that he had registered the name.  He even said he would gladly hand it over, but when it came time to transfer the name, he wanted a huge cash payout.

Here’s a look at the details of the “back and forth” that Riot Games contends took place, as provided by WIPO:

In February 2012, Respondent registered the disputed domain name.

On or about February 21, 2012, Complainant became aware that Respondent had registered the disputed domain name, which fully incorporates Complainant’s LEAGUE OF LEGENDS mark.

The website associated with the disputed domain name does not host or display any content or provide any services to the public. Instead, it consists of a graphic with the words “Future home of something quite cool” and an invitation for visitors to “please check back soon.”

Upon learning of Respondent’s registration, on March 14,2012, Complainant sent a letter to Respondent. The letter demanded that Respondent immediately discontinue use of the disputed domain name and Complainant’s LEAGUE OF LEGENDS mark, or any variation thereof, and requested that Respondent transfer the disputed domain name to Complainant.

On March 19, 2012, Respondent responded to Complainant, stating that he has “no intentions of doing anything with www.leagueoflegendsporn.com” and that he had “forgot” that he had registered the disputed domain name. Respondent assured Complainant that “the domain name will not be used nor will I use the League of Legends name in any way.” Respondent added that if Complainant needed the disputed domain name, he “will gladly hand it over” and asked for instructions on how to transfer it.

Complainant responded on the same date requiring the transfer of the disputed domain name, and providing instructions on how to do so.

On March 20, 2012, Respondent sent an email Complainant inquiring about “financial compensation” that he would be offered for complying with Complainant’s request.

Complainant responded on April 30, 2012, offering to reimburse Respondent for the cost of registering the disputed domain name.

On May 14, 2012, Respondent rejected the offer stating that it is “simply not enough… the traffic that can be drawn to this website with the millions of league fans is worth too much” and asked for a “significant offer” for the disputed domain name.

On May 16, 2012, Complainant offered to pay USD 250.00 for the disputed domain name in the interests of avoiding legal expenses and time. The next day, Respondent rejected the offer, stating that the website “is predicted to bring in an unrivaled amount of traffic and will be highly competitive in search engines” and asked for a “transfer” fee of USD 200,000.00 based on his “traffic estimates.”

Full details of the leagueoflegendsporn.com decision can be found online at WIPO.

As of today, the name is still registered to Brown according to Whois records.

(Image of Season One Championship via LeagueofLegends.com)

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Disputes News Video Games WIPO

Riot wins LeagueofLegends.co dispute, web address redirected users to porn site

Riot Games Dublin

Riot Games Dublin

In June, Riot Games won a case against a scam website claiming to offer online support for its smash hit PC game League of Legends.  Now, the company has won another dispute that it had filed in early August against the owner of LeagueofLegends.co (missing the ‘m’) which redirected users to a porn site.

Although the case (Case Number: DCO2012-0024) remains active on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) website where it was originally filed, the Whois records for LeagueofLegends.co reflect Riot as the owner of the name.  In addition to the change of ownership, the URL resolves to a blank web page, instead of a porn site filled with photos of nude women.

Considering LeagueofLegends.com ranks among the top 1,500 websites in the world, according to Alexa, it’s likely a lot of users entering a typo by forgetting the ‘m’ in .com, found themselves on a porn site, after typing the Colombia dot-co domain.

Right now if you type leagueoflegends.co into Google search, you can still see the hit for the porn site as shown in the screen shot below.

LeagueofLegends.co

Since details of the ruling haven’t been posted online yet, it’s unknown whether the previous owner Martin Hornak handed over the name before a decision was even issued or if he was ordered to transfer the name.

One thing’s for sure, Riot must be relieved to have control.

However, the company isn’t finished going after owners of domain names with its popular hit video game ‘League of Legends’ in the name.

In late July, the company also filed a complaint over the domain name LeagueofLegendsPorn.com (Case Number: D2012-1516), which has yet to be decided.  Unlike the dotco domain that pointed visitors to a graphic porn site, LeagueofLegendsPorn.com has a harmless “Coming Soon” page online.  But given that Riot has trademarked the term “League of Legends”, it too will likely end up in Riot’s hands.

UPDATE:  The case is now showing up as ‘terminated’, meaning the parties agreed on a settlement before the panel reached a decision.

Talking about this story: Kotaku, Joystiq, The Verge, Techdirt, GameStar, GamePolitics, MeriStation, GameDynamo, VG247, OnlineWelten.com, The Escapist, Kotaku Australia and Polygamia.pl

(Image of Riot Games Dublin Office via riotgames.com)

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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)

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Disputes News Technology WIPO

Research In Motion wins domain dispute over BlackBerry10.com, BlackBerry10.net

BlackBerry 10

Research In Motion will soon be in control of the domain names BlackBerry10.com and BlackBerry10.net, after a single-member arbitration panel with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ordered the names transferred to the device maker.

The dotcom URL has directed users to a Google 404 page for months, which triggered a discussion thread over at CrackBerry.com where one user joked that it meant that Google was clearly buying RIM.

BlackBerry 10 is the next operating system from RIM for its BlackBerry line of smartphones and tablets and it is expected to launch in 2013.

RIM has a lot riding on BlackBerry 10, so it makes sense as the company ratchets up its marketing strategy, that it owns the matching domains.  In this case, both names were owned by the same person, so RIM was able to file one complaint (WIPO Case D2012-1146).

At the time of this story, BlackBerry10.com continues to send visitors to a Google 404 error page.

Full details of the decision have not yet been published online.

(Image of BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour via BlackBerry.com)