Category: News

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News Trademarks Video Games

Reign of Fear video game trademark filed by Sony Online Entertainment

Sony Online Entertainment files "Reign of Fear" trademark

Sony Online Entertainment, known for its massively-multiplayer online games, has filed a trademark this week for “Reign of Fear” (Serial Number: 85683830).

The goods and services within the filing cover, “Computer game software and video game software; providing downloadable multiplayer, role playing, real time computer and video game software via an online website for entertainment purposes” and “Entertainment services, namely, operating a multiplayer, role playing, real time game for others via the Internet and local area computer networks”.

Not much is known about “Reign of Fear” beyond the trademark filing.

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Sony’s plans may not be too ambitious though.

A quick search across major social networks and domain names shows that Sony hasn’t bothered registering any of the matching names.

Given the nature of the name, it doesn’t sound like a kid’s game.

Earlier this week, SOE released the full length PlanetSide 2 Death is No Excuse trailer.  It’s unknown whether “Reign of Fear” has anything to do with Planetside 2’s upcoming release.

UPDATE: Shortly after my story came out, a resident of North Carolina registered the domain ReignofFear.com (Whois).

Talking about this story: VG247, Joystiq, Blue’s News, Shack News and JeuxOnLine

(Image of PlanetSide 2 via planetside2.com)

Categories
News Video Games

EA registers FriendsFinals.com, LiveFriendsFinals.com domains

Electronic Arts offices

Electronic Arts purchased two brand new domain names this week: FriendsFinals.com and LiveFriendsFinals.com.

According to Whois history records, neither domain has ever been registered before.

The domains were registered on July 24 through the internet brand protection company CSC Global, which handles domains for many of the top companies.

It’s unknown what – if anything – EA has planned for the names.

At the time of this story, FriendsFinals.com (Whois) and LiveFriendsFinals.com (Whois) do not resolve to a website.

UPDATE: On July 25, Electronic Arts registered Live-Seasons.com (Whois).

Categories
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)

Categories
News Trademarks Video Games

Activision applies for ‘The Roman Numeral II’, other Black Ops 2 trademarks

The Roman Numeral II

Activision applied for several U.S. trademarks this past week related to Call of Duty: Black Ops II which is scheduled to be released this November.  The trademark applications include “The Roman Numeral II”, “The Future is Black” and “There’s a Soldier in All of Us”.

Activision submitted two trademark applications (85673176, 85673166) for “The Roman Numeral II” which, of course, can be seen in the cover-art for the video game in a solid orange color.

“The Future is Black” is a tagline for the game and was used in the official reveal trailer that was published back in the beginning of May.  The filing (Serial Number: 85673145) like the others in the batch, covers computer game software and entertainment services.

The company looks to be protecting its IP as it ramps up marketing ahead of the game’s release.

“There’s a soldier in all of us” has been a tagline for Black Ops since the first game released worldwide in November 2010.  The trademark application (Serial Number: 85673131) was filed along with the others on July 10.

If you haven’t seen the official reveal trailer, you can watch it below.

Categories
Disputes News Technology WIPO

iPad3.com domain quickly turned over to Apple’s IP lawyers following complaint

iPad3

iPad3

The domain iPad3.com is now in the hands of Apple’s IP lawyers at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton.  It appears the previous name’s owner didn’t even want to wait for an arbitration panel to issue the inevitable decision, and has instead decided to quickly transfer the domain following a complaint that was filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) at the end of June.

In the last 24 hours, the Whois record for iPad3.com was updated to reflect the change in ownership from Global Access to Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, a law firm that has represented the company in several patent and trademark infringement cases.

Given the speed of the domain transfer from the time the dispute was filed until now, it’s safe to assume a WIPO panel hadn’t even issued a ruling for Case Number D2012-1319, as the entire process can takes weeks and months.  The case will end up being terminated, just as the cases for iPhone5.com and UsedMacs.com were terminated.

Ultimately, the next step is for the name to be transferred from Apple’s lawyers to Apple, as it was likely bleeding traffic when people typed www.ipad3.com into their web browser looking for “The new iPad” only to find themselves on a parked page filled with links.

Chances are Apple will not change a thing when it comes to marketing “The new iPad” and will simply forward the name to its iPad page on Apple.com.

At the time of this story, iPad3.com still redirects to a variety of different parking services with Above.com.

[UPDATE 3 July 12:. Apple has begun forwarding iPad3.com to its web site. DNW reports Apple is tracking the traffic it gets from this domain using a tracking code.]

[UPDATE 2 July 6:. Case Number D2012-1319 has now been terminated at WIPO.]

[UPDATE 1 July 5:. iPad3.com has been transferred from Above.com’s name servers to Apple’s name servers.]

Talking about this story:  Techmeme, The Next Web, CNET, PC Magazine, GameZone, Macworld UK, Australian Macworld, SlashGear, GMA News, MacRumors, Network World, iDownloadblog.com, ITProPortal, Marketing Land, WebProNews, mediabistro.com, 36kr.com, maclife.de, iJailbreak.com, Memeburn and ZDNet

(Image of the new iPad via Apple.com)