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News Video Games

Guardians of Middle Earth game domain names registered [UPDATED]

Guardians of Middle Earth game

In March 2012, Middle-earth Enterprises (a division of The Saul Zaentz Company), registered domain names hinting at a “Legends of Middle Earth” game.  Those domain names were publicly registered through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor.

Now, this week, a handful of domains have been privately registered through MarkMonitor that indicate a game by a different title may be in the works: Guardians of Middle Earth.

On May 1, guardiansofmiddleearth.com (Whois), guardiansofmiddleearthgame.com (Whois), guardiansofmiddle-earth.com (Whois), and guardiansofmiddle-earthgame.com (Whois), were all registered.  Given that Middle-earth Enterprises is a known-client of MarkMonitor, it’s safe to say that the company is behind the registrations.

At the time of this story, none of the domain names resolve to a web page nor has there been any official announcement about a “Guardians of Middle Earth” game.

The Hobbit, an upcoming film based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s novel, is set to be released in December 2012.

[UPDATED May 30, 2012:. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment revealed Guardians of Middle-earth, a multiplayer online battle arena game set to be released in the fall 2012.]

(Image of The Lord of the Rings Online)

Categories
News Technology

Apple registers iPhone4N.com domain?

iPhone 4N

Update 1 at 5:24AM EST:. After I posted this story, MacRumors pointed out that the iPhone4N.com Whois record raises questions as to whether Apple is really behind the registration.  First, the registrar used was Go Daddy, not MarkMonitor (Apple’s usual choice).  Guess we’ll have to wait and see if anything official is announced.

Original Story: Apple released the iPhone 4 in 2010 and the iPhone 4S in 2011.  Now, all the talk is about Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5.  But Apple did make an interesting domain name purchase this week: iPhone4N.com.

According to Whois records, Apple registered the domain on May 1, 2012.

It’s unknown why the company registered the domain name.

It may be nothing more than a defensive tactic to protect its intellectual property, except, a number of iPhone 4 variations like iPhone4Q.com and iPhone4W.com are still available for anyone to register at the time of this story.

Apple already owns the domains iPhone.com, iPhone4.com and iPhone4S.com.  Apple got its hands on iPhone4S.com after filing a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization.  Back in July 2011, Apple acquired iPhone4.com for an unknown amount of money.  The company acquired the domain iPhone.com for an undisclosed amount in 2007.  It’s rumored Apple paid over $1 million to acquire the name.

Talking about this story: BillHartzer.com

(Image of iPhone 4S via Apple.com)

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News Technology Trademarks

Samsung files trademark application for Galaxy Variant smartphone with USPTO

Samsung Galaxy smartphones

On April 26, 2012, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. submitted a trademark application for the Galaxy Variant (Serial Number: 85609690) with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

The “goods and services” in the filing cover: Mobile telephones; Smartphones.

The newest application was filed nearly two weeks after the company submitted trademarks for the Galaxy Metrix, Galaxy Velvet and Galaxy Legend smartphones, all of which were filed on April 13.

Over the last year, Samsung has filed what seems like dozens of application for new smartphones.  While many have hit the market, others have yet to materialize.

Today, Apple Insider reported that Apple ceded its spot as the world’s top smartphone vendor in the first quarter of 2012 to Samsung.

At the time of this story, Samsung has made no announcement regarding the Galaxy Variant.

Talking about this story: Phandroid, Softpedia, Geeky Gadgets, ITProPortal and MobileSyrup.com

(Photo of Samsung announcing the GALAXY Note via Samsung.com)

Categories
News Video Games

Microsoft Corporation registers domain names for ‘Xbox Summer Stadium App’

Xbox Summer Stadium App

Microsoft has picked up two new domain names this week hinting at an upcoming ‘Summer Stadium’ app for the Xbox.

On April 30, 2012, Microsoft registered the hyphenated domains, xbox-summer-stadium-app.com (Whois) and xbox-summer-stadium-app.net (Whois), through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor.

With baseball season in full swing, now is as good a time as any to release a stadium app for the Xbox. But it’s unknown at this time whether the app will be used for sports or music concerts taking place this summer.

MLB.com has a number of apps, including At the Ballpark which offers mobile check-in, social media, offers, rewards and exclusive content.  It also provides other information like current game details including team schedule, ticket information and sales and promotional event listings.

At the time of this story, Microsoft has not announced anything about the Summer Stadium app for the Xbox.

Currently, the domain xbox-summer-stadium-app.com does not resolve to a web page, while xbox-summer-stadium-app.net redirects visitors to Bing.

(Image of Xbox Live via Xbox.com)

Categories
News Video Games

ZeniMax acquired ‘Weapons of Revenge’, other Dishonored-related domain names

Weapons of Revenge

ZeniMax’s Bethesda Softworks unveiled www.RevengeSolvesEverything.com earlier this week, in what may possibly become one of many marketing web sites for its upcoming Dishonored game developed by Arkane Studios.

Digital design firm ROKKAN was the initial registrant of the domain revengesolveseverything.com which has become Dishonored’s tagline, and after some digging around, I managed to uncover other revenge-related domain names that ROKKAN acquired on behalf of ZeniMax Media.

Two names in particular that ROKKAN purchased last year have had some recent web activity: WeaponsofRevenge.com (Whois) and RevengeatHand.com (Whois).  Both names transferred to internet brand protection agency Corporation Service Company this week and weaponsofrevenge.com now redirects visitors to Bethesda’s home page on www.bethsoft.com.

ZeniMax also acquired ArmasdeVenganza.com (Whois), the Spanish version of “Weapons of Revenge”.

Other names ROKKAN acquired in the same batch include:

http://whois.domaintools.com/beatsofrevenge.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/codeofrevenge.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/revengeiscertain.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/revengestartshere.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/soundsofrevenge.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/trustrevenge.com

It’s unknown whether any of these domains will be used in further Dishonored marketing efforts, but you may want to keep an eye on names like WeaponsofRevenge.com and RevengeatHand.com as Bethesda steps up its online marketing tactics and the game’s release gets closer.