Category: Trademarks

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News Trademarks

Powered by the popularity of Citizen Journalism, YouNews.com sells at Sedo’s GreatDomains for $40,000

younews

It can’t be confirmed until the name transfers to the new registrant, but I’m guessing YouNewsTV a site that lets people share videos, photos and stories has purchased the domain name YouNews.com from Sedo’s GreatDomains.  The name is currently in Sedo’s Transfer Service.

GreatDomains reported the sale of the domain name for $40,000 USD earlier today on its web site.

Broadcast Interactive Media, which owns and operates YouNewsTV, also owns the trademark on “YouNews” for the purpose of: providing customized on-line web pages that allow users to post and view messages, photographs, videos and audio recordings, and that allow users to post and view user profiles and information and to communicate with other users; and creating and maintaining customized web pages for radio and television stations.

YouNewsTV was initially launched in June 2007 in 25 different markets in conjunction with TV station partners.  The site experienced spikes in traffic shortly after its launch when citizen journalists submitted videos of tornados and photos of thunderclouds during severe weather that hit Iowa in July.

Based on a rough traffic estimate provided by Compete, YouNewsTV.com receives well over 100,00 unique visitors per month, and in Dec. 2009 recorded over 250,000 visitors.

Citizen Journalism

Citizen journalism (news reported by everyday people, not professional journalists) has become extremely popular with the rise of social media services and tools like blogs, Twitter, and YouTube.  YouTube itself, has helped domain investors cash in on domain names with the word “You” or “Tube” in the name. 

According to Alexa,  YouTube is the #3 most visited site in the world.   Adult sites have fared very well since YouTube’s rise.  YouPorn, is #74 out of the Top 500 sites in the world.  Of the Top 200 – RedTube is #119, FilesTube is #121, YouJizz is #146. 

“News” Domain Sales

One of the most notable sales of a domain name used for the purpose of citizen journalism, was the sale of iReport.com to CNN by Rick Schwartz for $750,000.  Rick Schwartz who sold Candy.com for $3MM+Equity, originally bought the name iReport.com for “$70 to $100.”   In mid-2010, CNN decided to redirect the URL iReport.com to ireport.cnn.com.

CNET News runs on the domain name news.com.  According to Wikipedia:

CNET owns many domain names, including download.com, upload.com, news.com, search.com, tv.com, mp3.com, chat.com, computers.com, help.com, shopper.com, radio.com, and com.com.  In 1998, CNET was sued by Snap Technologies for its use of the snap.com domain

According to the Sales History database over at DomainTools, there have been a number of “news” domain sales in 2010.  FantasyNews.com sold in Oct. for $8,299.  News.net, the biggest reported “news” sale of 2010, sold for $150,000 in late September.  The site is a directory of news organizations from around the world.

Other noteworthy sales in 2010 include: RacingNews.com for $5,000 which redirects to 123racing.com, and newsbackup.com for $10,000.  For a full listing of “news” sales, refer to DomainTools.com.

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News Trademarks WIPO

Twitter files UDRP complaint against owner of domain: TwitterSearch.com

twitter search

TechCrunch is reporting that Twitter is going after the domain name Twittersearch.com, that was registered by its owner in March 2007.  Twitter launched its popular micro-blogging service a year before, in March 2006.

Twitter late last week filed a UDRP complaint, notably its first ever since the company was founded, in an effort to obtain ownership over the (currently parked) domain name twittersearch.com – as you can see here.

Obviously, Twitter is right to do this, since the domain is likely to cause some confusion, although we should note Twitter hasn’t managed to secure a trademark for the term ‘twitter’ in the United States so far, despite multiple attempts.

A compliance review is currently pending according to the World Internataionl Property Organization (better known as WIPO).  In the same list of cases over at WIPO, Pocket Kings the company that owns Full Tilt Poker is going after typo domain names.

A look at a rough traffic estimate provided by Compete, shows TwitterSearch.com receives several thousand visitors per month.

To avoid a trademark issue, other sites like TwitterCounter.com, a site which receives over 1 million visitors per month and provides stats, graphs and widgets for Twitter users, licenses the Twitter name from Twitter, Inc.  Probably a smart move short term, but long term it might be in the company’s interest to re-brand.  The company also owns Twittermail.com.

Oddly enough, Twitter Inc hasn’t gone after the owner of Twiter.com (a popular typo of Twitter), who is obviously trying to trick unsuspecting visitors into clicking on ads, but as TechCrunch points out: ” Twitter hasn’t managed to secure a trademark for the term ‘twitter’ in the United States so far, despite multiple attempts.”  So winning a case for Twiter, might be a lot harder than winning a case for TwitterSearch.com.

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Disputes News Trademarks Video Games

Activision knows a thing or two about ‘Call of Duty’ domain names (or do they?)

call of duty black ops

You might remember when news broke that Activision had registered a number of domains such as callofdutyfuturewarfare.com and codfuturewarfare.com.  The website superannuation had announced a fresh new batch of names registered by Activision shortly after the company purchased the names in May. 

Mary Tuck, one of the company’s attorneys, is not only responsible for registering the names, but she also files trademarks on behalf of the company according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office web site at uspto.gov.  The same day the company registered the names on May 11, it also filed for the trademarks.

The superannuation article linked to the Whois records on the popular domain company site – DomainTools and it sparked a flurry of stories across gaming and technology sites. 

Out of those dozen or so names though, nothing yet has been developed.  In fact, none of the names resolve to any kind of website at the time of this story. 

While rumors swirl about Activision’s next Call of Duty game, the company seems to be improving its understanding of domain names. 

Call of Duty Domains

Call of Duty Black Ops, its latest title released earlier this month, is being considered a game-changer with sales shattering records all over the world.  Activision does own callofdutyblackops.com, but it failed to register other variations.

If you notice the domains registered in May, the company picked up a number of variations of possible titles.  For example, instead of just registering futurewarfare2.com – the company also registered codfuturewarfare2.com and callofdutyfuturewarfare2.com for a possible Call of Duty Future Warfare game. 

No surprise, futurewarfare.com had been registered for years before, so Activision didn’t get its hands on the simplest version of the name.  The name is owned by BuyDomains.  And if shorter and memorable names are any indicator of value, Activision should probably buy the name now while its listed for a reasonable price of $3,788 (before someone else does).

Blackops.com, another name it doesn’t own, has seen a huge spike in traffic to its web site over the last several months, which is likely to grow with the game’s popularity.

Trademark infringing domains

glaswegianWhen it came to registering domain names for its most successful title to date, Activision missed registering names like codblackops.com – a habit it’s now getting into by registering domain names with ‘cod’ (as in, Call of Duty) in the front. 

With codblackops.com, the owner Stephen Girvan currently has a web site online that has seen a surge in traffic. 

Visit the site, and click on the home page, and you’ll be taken to an article entitled: ‘Video Game Giants are Bullying Me’. 

The article discusses Stephen’s dispute with Activision over domain names, which started after: ‘he created a “clan” website in January to allow him and his friends to post scores online of their favourite game, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.  At the beginning of March, Stephen, of Maryhill, says he renamed the website to codblackops.com after asking members to come up with a name.’

At this point what comes of the dispute isn’t known, but one thing is for sure: Activision is starting to get better at registering domain names. 

My only advice is that the company should purchase FutureWarfare.com while it can. 

futurewarfare.com

The phrase ‘Future Warfare’ is generic, and used among military and military scholars.  But that hasn’t stopped Activision from filing for a trademark – which it did on May 11, 2010 (along with Call of Duty Futurewarfare).

Categories
News Trademarks

A brief history of 3D domain name sales

Avatar 3D

Avatar 3D

Ever since Stephen Douglas posted an article about 3D Domains as the next big trend for domain buyers and sellers, I’ve been more interested in learning about the space.  Domain investors have also been having a number of online discussions about 3D domains over at DN Forum, Namepros and other forums.

I decided to take a quick look at the sales history of 3D domain names using one of the best resources for domain investors: DomainTools.com – Sales History.

Some of the top publicly reported sales took place in 2010, with the sale of 3Dtv.co.uk leading the charts, selling for $22,650 in March 2010.  A web site is online and blog, run by a small team headed by the founder, Chris Conwell, who has been active on the web since 1995.  Chris Conwell is a big-time domain investor and developer.  According to the web site: ‘Chris also owns the popular gift ideas site Gadgets.co.uk and the domain name site Zycon.co.uk which has a portfolio of almost 8000 domains. He also owned one of the UK’s leading mobile phone sites, Mobiles.co.uk, until its recent sale to The Carphone Warehouse.’

3Dscience.com sold for $4,637 via Afternic in 2005.   3DScience.com is a website operated by Zygote Media Group, Inc.   The company’s mission is: ‘to be the best scientific visualization content provider to professionals and consumers while leading the industry in innovative creative development, artistic quality and service.’

Web3D.com sold in 2009 on the aftermarket site NameJet.  The price: $14,301.  3Dweb.com sold for $8,100 back in September via Sedo.  And that was just the tip of the iceberg for Sedo.

In 2010, Sedo closed several four-figure deals:

3Dweb.net €3,000.00
3D-templates.com $2,789.00
3Dwebcam.com $2,500.00
3Dmovie.com €2,499.00
3D-video.com $2,488.00
3Ddvds.com $2,200.00
3D-animation.com €1,888.00

The list of sales goes on and on.  At the time of this story, 3DPS3.com is in auction with a bid of $100.  As Mike Berkens recently discussed on his blog The Domains, Sedo hasn’t done much to clean up trademark infringing auctions.  Clearly, the auction for 3DPS3.com will draw attention – just this week Sony announced more than 50 3D-enabled games are in development for its PS3 platform.

If you have more information on 3D domain sales or tips on 3D domain names, please leave a comment below or use the Contact Us form.

Categories
News Trademarks

Media giant Hearst Corporation acquires domain LittleAngels.com for $100,000

hearst tower

The news broke earlier this week on GreatDomains.com that the domain name LittleAngels.com sold for a whopping $100,000.  But until now, the new owners had remained a mystery. 

Earlier the registrant records switched from Sedo over to Hearst Corporation, one of the nation’s largest diversified media companies that owns 15 daily and 38 weekly newspapers, nearly 200 magazines around the world, 29 television stations, and has ownership in leading cable networks such as ESPN.

Now that the name has traded owners, what are the plans for the domain name: littleangels.com?

At the time of this story, littleangels.com is nothing more than a parked page at MelbourneIT.  But if you dig a little deeper, for example search trademarks on the United States Patent and Trademark Office, you’ll find that Hearst filed for the “LITTLE ANGELS” trademark back on July 26, 2010.

According to the filing, Little Angels will serve up: ‘Digital media, namely DVDs, videos and CDs featuring children’s audio visual programing and music; computer applications for mobile phones, namely downloadable children’s audio visual programing and music; sound recordings.’

‘Angels’ Domain Names

On a somewhat related note, littleangels.com isn’t the only big sale of an ‘angels’ domain in 2010.  Earlier this year, Angels.com was acquired for $200,000 by the MLB for its the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim web site.  The price tag put the sale in 37th place among the Top 100 sales of 2010, according to the current rankings at DN Journal.

While the DN Journal rankings don’t include littleangels.com yet, the sale price will rank it somewhere among the top 60 sales, tied with Prize.com, Cheesecake.com, and other domain names that sold for $100,000.