Category: News

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News Video Games

Top 10 Stories of 2011: #2 Activision battles for ModernWarfare3.com domain

Modern Warfare 3

Activision won rights to the domain ModernWarfare3.com in early September, bringing a saga that dragged on for months to a close.

My coverage of the whole affair from beginning to end drew thousands of thousands of page views, along with mentions from nearly every major video gaming news site and blog.

It was Activision’s decision to file a domain dispute over ModernWarfare3.com that earned the number two spot in the Top 10 stories of 2011.

The coverage began in January 2011, when I wrote about Activision missing out on several Modern Warfare domain names, including ModernWarfare3.com. 

In May, information and dates were leaked on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 to Kotaku. 

Shortly after the online buzz started, the owner of ModernWarfare3.com put up a website and literally gained thousands of fans on Facebook overnight.  Then the website abruptly went offline for days, in what appeared to be a response by the owner to Activision’s lawyers. 

When the site came back online however, the same owner launched a revamped website that lashed out at Activision, in a series of statements and videos, throwing support instead to Call of Duty’s biggest competitor – Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 3.

Still, at this point, no one else was covering it.

It was my story on ModernWarfare3.com re-directing to EA’s Battlefield 3 website in July that started drawing attention by sites like Kotaku.  The move to forward the domain proved embarrassing for Activision.

What followed were a series of breaking stories that continued to draw massive traffic.

In mid July, Activision officially filed a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum that I got my hands on. 

After the complaint was filed, Go Daddy removed the privacy service on the domain, revealing the identity of the owner.

In September, Activision triumphed and the domain was ordered transferred.

By October, the domain resolved to CallofDuty.com.

If Activision decides to release a Modern Warfare 4, it may want to handle things a little differently.  As of today, ModernWarfare4.com doesn’t belong to Activision.

Categories
News Technology Trademarks

Samsung files trademark for ‘Samsung Core’ smart phones and tablets

Samsung Core

According to internet reports, Samsung may launch the Galaxy S III at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February.  As pointed out by The Next Web, the device is expected to feature new quad-core processing technology and reportedly have 3D technology.

It addition to the Galaxy S III, it appears Samsung may unveil a new line of devices in 2012 featuring quad-core processors. 

On December 27, 2011, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd filed a trademark application (Serial Number: 85504384) with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the ‘Samsung Core’. 

The goods and services covered in the trademark application cover:  mobile phones, smartphones and tablet computers.

At the time of this story running, Samsung has yet to announce the Samsung Core.

Discussion: Ubergizmo, Geeky Gadgets, Mobot.net, AndroidAppTests, Engadget en español, Tecnología 21 and Gizmodo ES

(Image of Galaxy Tab via Samsung.com)

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News

Domain bloggers get opportunity to share profits with Domaining.com aggregator

Domaining.com

Popular domain news aggregator Domaining.com is planning to dip into its profits generated by the sales of domains listed in the January 9th CAX.com sales newsletter.

In mid-December, Francois Carrillo the owner of Domaining.com, told several domain bloggers listed with the news site, that they would receive part of the profit.

“As the year is ending I would like to thank our bloggers for having shared their knowledge, experience, enthusiasm… all this past year, but also give you the opportunity to do the same,” wrote Carrillo via e-mail.

The upcoming sale is being heavily promoted by domain bloggers, and as can be expected with all the attention, should attract a good mix of sellers and buyers.

Ron Jackson of DNJournal wrote earlier this week, “The way it works is that anyone who wants to put a name up for sale in the event (only one name per person), can submit it for consideration here. Carrillo plans to put the 100 best submissions in a sales newsletter that will go out Monday, January 9, 2012.”

Categories
News

Top 10 Stories of 2011: #5 Salesforce revealed as $2.6MM social.com buyer

Marc Benioff

The biggest domain sale of 2011, with a price tag of $2.6 million, was social.com. 

The domain sold in June and was co-brokered by Marksmen’s Cyntia King and Moniker.com’s John Mauriello.

As to who purchased the domain name remained a mystery, that is until I broke the story that the buyer was none other than Salesforce.com, the enterprise software company that has paid millions of dollars for domains such as database.com and data.com.

Number five in the Top 10 stories of 2011 here on Fusible, with nearly two hundred tweets, was revealing Salesforce.com as the buyer of social.com in September.  

The story also exposed a flaw within Network Solutions’ password retrieval system, which has yet to be fixed.

Though some doubted whether Salesforce.com was the buyer after my story ran, Marc Benioff confirmed publicly at Salesforce.com’s Cloudforce New York in late November that he did buy social.com, saying “We don’t have a product for it yet – it’s just a placeholder.”

Categories
Disputes News WIPO

eCommerce giant markafoni first company to file .XXX domain dispute

markafoni

The Turkish private shopping club markafoni has become the first company to file a .XXX domain dispute with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over the domain markafoni.xxx.  According to WIPO, the case commenced on December 29.

WIPO Case Number (D2011-2298) was filed by VIPINDIRIM, the company behind markafoni, which was featured last July in TechCrunch, after the company was valued around $200 million following 70 percent of its shares being acquired by Naspers.

According to WHOIS records, the domain <markafoni.xxx> was registered on December 6, by Yasin Kaplan who resides in Istanbul.

December 6 marked the first day of general availability of .XXX domains.  

Per the ICM Registry, “General Availability is when members of the adult Sponsored Community get regular, resolving names on a first come, first served basis. Non-members of the adult Sponsored Community can also get “Non-Resolving” names.”

Although the ICM Registry has gone to unprecedented lengths to put an end to cybersquatting by suspending abusive registrations such as BusinessWeek.xxx, there will be other names that fall into a gray area that will get sorted out at arbitration.

As of today, only one other .XXX domain case has been filed under the UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) — Case number 1421851 commenced on December 30, with the National Arbitration Forum over the domain name heb.xxx.

Discussion: NamePros