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Movies News

Is the Dreamworks Animation film ‘Rise of the Guardians’ getting a new title?

Rise of the Guardians: Jack Frost

Rise of the Guardians: Jack Frost

It appears DreamWorks Animation’s Rise of the Guardians set to release in November 2012 may be getting a new name – one that more highlights the film’s lead character ‘Jack Frost’ played by Chris Pine.

Formerly titled The Guardians of Childhood, then changed to Rise of the Guardians, in the past week DreamWorks Animation has registered well over a dozen domain names that hint at the name change like dreamworksriseoftheguardians-jackfrost.com, jackfrost.info, riseoftheguardians-jack.com and many more.

Here’s a look at several of the domain names acquired this week by DreamWorks Animation:

dreamworksriseoftheguardians-jack.biz
dreamworksriseoftheguardians-jack.com
dreamworksriseoftheguardians-jack.info
dreamworksriseoftheguardians-jack.net
dreamworksriseoftheguardians-jackfrost.biz
dreamworksriseoftheguardians-jackfrost.com
dreamworksriseoftheguardians-jackfrost.info
dreamworksriseoftheguardians-jackfrost.net
dreamworksriseoftheguardians-jack.org
dreamworksriseoftheguardians-jackfrost.org
jackfrost.info
riseoftheguardians-jack.biz
riseoftheguardians-jack.com
riseoftheguardians-jack.info
riseoftheguardians-jack.net
riseoftheguardians-jackfrost.biz
riseoftheguardians-jackfrost.com
riseoftheguardians-jackfrost.info
riseoftheguardians-jackfrost.net
riseoftheguardians-jack.org
riseoftheguardians-jackfrost.org

According to the press release issued last January by DreamWorks, the epic 3D adventure will also star Alec Baldwin as North (Santa Claus), Hugh Jackman as Bunnymund (Easter Bunny), Isla Fisher as Tooth (Tooth Fairy) and Jude Law as Pitch (The Boogeyman).

[Updated on November 22, 2011 at 4:35am EST:  Looks like the domain names have nothing to do with the film title. DreamWorks Animation registered several more names with characters from the film in the domain like riseoftheguardians-sandman.biz, riseoftheguardians-bunnymund.biz, and riseoftheguardians-north.org]

(Photo of Jack Frost via Rise of the Guardians official Facebook page)

Categories
News

Why? Google registers GoogleGoro.com

Google Goro

Update 1 at 6:42am EST:  Google Goro appears to be a web application that uses the Google App Engine.  According to Google, there a number of URLs like, ‘https://wow.goro.appspot.com/worldwondersproject/cuenca/index.html, however when you try signing into Google Goro using Google Accounts an error page appears.  You might also notice the subdirectory in the URL contains ‘worldwondersproject’.  In late October I wrote about Google acquiring the domains Worldwondersproject.com.   At the time of this update, neither WorldWondersProject.com nor GoogleGoro.com resolve to a web page.  There are plenty of other goro.appspot addresses that include different subdomains and subdirectories.

***

Google’s domain portfolio took a strange turn this week as the search engine giant registered GoogleGoro.com, GoogleGoro.net, and GoogleGoro.org.

Trying to figure out what Google plans to do with Goro (the name of which was used by the four-armed half-human, half-dragon sub-boss in the Mortal Kombat franchise) has proved to be difficult.

Google registered all three names on November 18th, through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor.  However at the time of this story, none of the new domains resolve to a web page.

GoogleGoro may end up being nothing more than part of the company’s defensive domain strategy like Googlepoo.com, one of the company’s stranger names that it apparently has no plans for.  

It’s likely Google has plans for GoogleGoro as it took the .net and .org in addition to the .com. 

Here’s a look at the WHOIS record for GoogleGoro.com:

Registrant:
        DNS Admin
        Google Inc.
        1600 Amphitheatre Parkway 
         Mountain View CA 94043
        US

    Domain Name: googlegoro.com

        Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
        Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
        Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com

    Administrative Contact:
        DNS Admin
        Google Inc.
        1600 Amphitheatre Parkway 
         Mountain View CA 94043
        US

    Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
        DNS Admin
        Google Inc.
        1600 Amphitheatre Parkway 
         Mountain View CA 94043
        US

    Created on…………..: 2011-11-18.
    Expires on…………..: 2013-11-18.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-11-18.

Discussion: Search Engine Land

Categories
News Trademarks Video Games

EA files more trademarks this week, this time for ‘Secret Island’ video game

Electronic Arts: Secret Island

Video game publisher Electronic Arts has filed a second set of trademarks on November 15th, 2011, for Secret Island, but has made no announcement as to details of the video game.

The Secret Island trademark filings follow earlier applications this week for Blacked Out, which I reported about earlier today.

The trademark applications (Serial Number: 85473042 and Serial Number: 85473035) cover the typical goods and services that precede the launch of a game, like entertainment services, on-line computer games, and downloadable computer game software.

(Photo of Lisianski Island, Hawaiian Chain via Captain Pat Palazzolo)

Categories
News

CamperForce: Amazon getting ready to launch resource, job site for workampers

Amazon Camper Force

Back in late September, I wrote about Amazon’s Legal Department registering the domain name AmazonCamperforce.com, but really had no idea as to plans for the name.  

After a bit more digging, I found more information, including a trademark application (Serial Number: 85471619) for the word ‘Camperforce’ filed this week by Amazon.

It appears Amazon is getting ready to launch a website for its workampers – people who travel and live in an RV, then get jobs working in the area where they are visiting.

According to a recent ABC News article, Amazon hires temporary seasonal employees for their warehouses, including workampers, and is by far the biggest workamper employer.  A post on Live. Work. Dream. says the company even has “Camper Force Coordinators”, gives completion bonuses, covers campground costs, and even gives its workampers a 10 percent discount on Amazon purchases.

The goods and services in the company’s latest trademark filing cover “employment recruiting, hiring and placement services; providing online employment recruiting services; providing a searchable database featuring employment opportunities; providing a website where users can obtain information about employment opportunities” and “providing information about temporary housing accommodations.”

At the time of this story going online around 5am EST, Amazon has not made any announcements on its Press Releases site nor does the domain resolve to a web page.  So, a resource web site featuring camping information and available jobs is still just speculation.

But I have a feeling with the holidays coming up, the domain name registered, and the new trademark filing this week, workampers can expect to see something online very soon.

Categories
News Trademarks Video Games

Electronic Arts files new trademark applications for ‘Blacked Out’ game

Blacked Out trademark application

Battlefield 3 publisher Electronic Arts has filed two new trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the phrase Blacked Out.

The phrase Blacked Out, which commonly refers to temporarily losing consciousness, has several meanings so it’s hard to know exactly what kind of game EA has in store.

Both trademark filings were submitted on November 14, 2011.

Serial Number 85471685 covers, “Computer game software; Downloadable computer game software via a global computer network and wireless devices.”

Serial Number 85471683 covers, “Entertainment services, namely, providing an on-line computer game; Provision of information relating to electronic computer games provided via the Internet.”