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News Technology Trademarks

Samsung files trademarks for Galaxy Metrix, Velvet, and Legend smartphones

Samsung Galaxy Metrix, Legend, and Velvet

Samsung continues to file new smartphone trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

On April 13, 2012, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. submitted three more applications for the Galaxy Metrix (Serial Number: 85597928), the Galaxy Velvet (Serial Number:85597925), and the Galaxy Legend (Serial Number: 85597919).

Each filing covers the exact same “goods and services”:  Mobile telephones; Smartphones.

The new trademark applications come on the heels of the filings for the Galaxy Sire, Galaxy Lift and Galaxy Perx smartphones, filed in late March.

According to BGR, Samsung plans to unveil the Galaxy S III, which will be the official device of the 2012 Summer Olympics, in London.

At the time of this post, Samsung has made no announcement regarding the Galaxy Metrix, Velvet and Legend.

Discussion: MobileSyrup.com and Geeky Gadgets

(Image of the Samsung GALAXY S II via Samsung.com)

Categories
News Video Games

Ubisoft actually registers domain name for Rabbids’ yell Bwaaaaaaaaaah.com

Raving Rabbids bwaaaaaaaaaah

Ubisoft has made somewhat of an interesting domain purchase this week.  On April 17, 2012, the video game publisher registered the thirteen-letter name bwaaaaaaaaaah.com (Whois), which refers to the crazy rabbits known as the Rabbids and their trademark yell, “BWAAAAAAAH!”.

Oddly enough, Ubisoft opted not to go with shorter versions of the name like bwaaaaaaaaah.com (which is only twelve letters long and is available at the time of this story).  In fact, Ubisoft could’ve registered the nine-letter, ten-letter or even the eleven-letter names.

The registration appears related to the first volume of a comic book that will be released in June by the same name.

At the time of this story, the domain does not resolve to a web page.

Discussion: GoNintendo

(Image of Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party via Ubi.com)

Categories
News Technology Trademarks

Motorola files trademark for Electrify Icon mobile phones and smart phones

Motorola Electrify Icon

Last week, I reported that Motorola registered a handful of “Electrify Icon” domain names like ElectrifyIcon.com and MotorolaElectrifyIcon.com, and now we have more details on what we can expect to see with the Electrify Icon.

On April 11, 2012, Motorola Trademark Holdings submitted a trademark application for the “Electrify Icon” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

The “goods and services” in the filing (Serial Number: 85594941) cover, “mobile phones and smart phones”.

Motorola released its “Motorola Electrify” Android-powered smartphone last year, also known as the Motorola Photon 4G.

At the time of this story, Motorola has made no official announcement regarding the “Electrify Icon”.

Categories
Disputes National Arbitration Forum News Video Games

Microsoft wins another case against a fake Halo 4 beta website [UPDATED]

Halo 4 Beta

As buzz picks up about Halo 4, Microsoft has won another domain dispute (Claim Number: FA1203001432610) this past week against a fake Halo 4 beta website, this time Halo4Beta.biz.

On April 11, 2012, a single member panel with the National Arbitration Forum ordered that the Halo4Beta.biz domain name be transferred to Microsoft Corporation after having established all three elements required under the ICANN policy.

The three elements included:

(1) the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark in which the complainant has rights
(2) the owner has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name and;
(3) the domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.

Some of the highlights noted in the decision included that the respondent in the case, “Gerardo Torres / JerryG”, generated revenue from affiliate fees collected when each internet user signed up to receive one of the offers and that the domain was registered less than 10 days after Microsoft officially introduced Halo 4 through a global press release.

In early March, Microsoft Corporation won the rights to Halo4Beta.net, the first Halo 4 beta website to gain notoriety for tricking users into getting a bogus beta code.

343 Industries announced in March that it had no plans for a Halo 4 beta, but scam artists have still been able to cash in.

The full details of the ruling have been released and can be read online here.

Updated May 8, 2012:. Microsoft has taken official control of the domain name Halo4beta.biz (Whois) and now redirects visitors to Bing.

Talking about this story: VG247 and Gameranx

Categories
News Video Games

New League of Legends (LoL) Supremacy game likely on the way [UPDATED]

League of Legends: Supremacy

[UPDATE 5 October 13, 2013:. A hacker by the name of “Jason” posted images of card templates for the yet to be released League of Legends: Supremacy digital card game.]

[UPDATE 4 October 13, 2013:. Marc Merrill’s Twitter account has been breached, and information about a Supremacy card game has been leaked.]

[UPDATE 3 June 15, 2012:. The identity of Supremacy.com’s owner is no longer a secret.  The Whois privacy on the name has been removed, showing the name “Riot Games, Inc.” as the registered owner. Details: LoL big announcement soon? Riot now reveals itself as owner of Supremacy.com.]

[UPDATE 2 May 27, 2012:. Riot Games filed a trademark application on May 22, 2012, with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for “League of Legends: Supremacy”.Details: Riot Games makes it official, trademarks League of Legends: Supremacy.]

[UPDATE 1 May 19, 2012:. Despite all the best efforts of MarkMonitor, a company that prides itself on protecting the brands of the world’s leading companies, it failed to add Whois privacy to leagueoflegendssupremacy.org. Details: Proof that Riot Games is behind the League of Legends Supremacy domain name registrations.]

ORIGINAL STORY: Domain names can often be a good indicator of a company’s plans.  And based on the large of amount of domain registrations and acquisitions recently, it looks like Riot Games is preparing to release a brand new game mode for League of Legends called Supremacy.

Back in late February, another domain blog Rogue Domaining had noted that leagueoflegendssupremacy.com and .net had been privately registered by the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor.  While registering two domains may signal nothing more than a company trying to protect its intellectual property, I’ve discovered additional strong hints that Riot Games will be introducing League of Legends: Supremacy in the near future.

First off, Riot Games is a client of MarkMonitor, a firm that over half the fortune 100 rely on for brand protection online.  While the key is to be discreet when registering names for yet-to-be-released games, months ahead of its Dominion game mode release, MarkMonitor registered names like leagueoflegendsdominion.com (Whois).

This week, MarkMonitor registered a slew of typos of League of Legends: Supremacy domains including:

leageoflegendssupremacy.com
leageoflegendssupremacy.net
leagueoflegendsupremacy.com
leagueoflegendsupremacy.net
leaugeoflegendssupremacy.com
leaugeoflegendssupremacy.net
lolsupramecy.com
lolsupramecy.net
lolsupremecy.com
lolsupremecy.net
lolsupremicy.com
lolsupremicy.net

Now add to that, Riot Games has apparently acquired the generic domain names Supremacy.com (Whois) and Supremacy.net (Whois), which you can most certainly assume did not go for cheap, dropping hints that League of Legends: Supremacy is definitely on its way.  You don’t spend the kind of money it takes to buy generic names like these for defensive purposes unless you have a plan.

Days ago, both names transferred from their previous owner to MarkMonitor.  The tie-in between Supremacy.com and the other League of Legends names, is that on the same day MarkMonitor registered the typos of leagueoflegends.com and lolsupremacy.com, it also picked up typos of supremacy.com like supramecy.net, supremecy.net, supremicy.com, and supremicy.net.

While nothing is official yet, with all these new domain registrations revealed here in the past week, news of a new game mode seems very close.

Talking about this story: League of Legends subreddit, GameZone, VG247, League of Legends Community, Neoseeker, IchSpiele.cc, OnlineWelten.com and Gameplorer.de