It may be something. Or it may be nothing. What is for sure is that Disney Enterprises, Inc. has registered the domain DisneyConsole.com (WHOIS).
The domain was registered this week through Corporation Service Company (CSC), a company that helps businesses protect their brands.
In January 2013, the internet was abuzz with rumors about Disney possibly working with Apple on a video game console after the tech blog Patently Apple uncovered a patent application.
The company released its sandbox video game Infinity in August 2013. This week, Disney Interactive announced that Disney Infinity has already sold 1,000,000 of its $75 starter packs.
DisneyConsole.com may be nothing more than a defensive registration tied to Disney Infinity, either way, it’s just speculation for now.
As of today, DisneyConsole.com redirects users to Go.com, the landing page for Disney content (operated by the Walt Disney Internet Group).
Apple has a poor track record when it comes to owning the matching domain names to new products that it announces.
As pointed out by Michael Berkens of The Domains back in September, Apple missed out on acquiring EarPod.com and EarPods.com, nor did the company get AppleEarPods.com which was put up for sale on eBay.
The company has, however, been able to acquire two related names: EarPod.net and TheEarPod.com.
According to WHOIS records, Apple is now the owner of the domains EarPod.net (WHOIS) and TheEarPod.com (WHOIS), both of which were under Domains By Proxy, Go Daddy’s privacy service, up until this week.
While the price paid for Apple’s latest acquisitions is unknown, can you guess how much it would cost for Apple to acquire EarPods.com?
The domain iPad3.com is now in the hands of Apple’s IP lawyers at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton. It appears the previous name’s owner didn’t even want to wait for an arbitration panel to issue the inevitable decision, and has instead decided to quickly transfer the domain following a complaint that was filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) at the end of June.
In the last 24 hours, the Whois record for iPad3.com was updated to reflect the change in ownership from Global Access to Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, a law firm that has represented the company in several patent and trademark infringement cases.
Given the speed of the domain transfer from the time the dispute was filed until now, it’s safe to assume a WIPO panel hadn’t even issued a ruling for Case Number D2012-1319, as the entire process can takes weeks and months. The case will end up being terminated, just as the cases for iPhone5.com and UsedMacs.com were terminated.
Ultimately, the next step is for the name to be transferred from Apple’s lawyers to Apple, as it was likely bleeding traffic when people typed www.ipad3.com into their web browser looking for “The new iPad” only to find themselves on a parked page filled with links.
Chances are Apple will not change a thing when it comes to marketing “The new iPad” and will simply forward the name to its iPad page on Apple.com.
At the time of this story, iPad3.com still redirects to a variety of different parking services with Above.com.
[UPDATE 3 July 12:. Apple has begun forwarding iPad3.com to its web site. DNW reports Apple is tracking the traffic it gets from this domain using a tracking code.]
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.
[UPDATED:. Crowdstar released Modern Girl on March 6, 2012.]
**
Original story:
Mobile social gaming company Crowdstar appears to be working on its next iOS “Girl” game called Modern Girl.
In a filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on February 6, 2012, Crowdstar Inc. filed to trademark “Modern Girl by Crowdstar”.
The goods and services covered in the trademark filing (Serial Number: 85534912) include:
Downloadable computer game software for use on wireless devices and computers; computer-game software, video game software, and computer game application software; interactive-video-game programs; electronic game software and electronic game application software that may be accessed via the Internet, computers and wireless devices; computer software to enable uploading, posting, showing, displaying, tagging, blogging, sharing or otherwise providing electronic media or information regarding the fields of virtual communities, electronic gaming, entertainment and general interest via the Internet or other communications networks with third parties
Crowdstar’s Social Girl which launched in December 2011, snagged a million downloads in its first week of going live.
At the time of this story, Crowdstar has made no announcement about Modern Girl.
The trademark filing for Modern Girl comes at a peculiar time. The same week Crowdstar submitted the application, Apple warned developers not to manipulate App Store rankings.
