Tag: apple

Categories
News

Apple secures SteveJobs.xxx domain

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs

Apple has secured the dot-xxx adult domain SteveJobs.xxx (Whois), preventing anyone else from using the name of the company’s late co-founder.

This week, Apple officially took control of the domain through the registrar Corporation Service Company (CSC), a company that helps protect many of the world’s most valuable brands and patrols the internet for incidences of brand abuse.

The acquisition of SteveJobs.xxx comes the same week the company officially revealed itself as the owner of RememberingSteve.com, a web address that has been re-directing to Apple’s online memorial since early October when Steve Jobs passed away.  

Apple has owned RememberingSteveJobs.com for months and now the Whois record for RememberingSteve.com shows Apple as the registrant.

Surprisingly, to this day Apple does not own the web addresses of Steve Jobs in dotcom, dotnet, or dotorg.  SteveJobs.com is owned by a resident of South Korea according to Whois records, while the dotnet is owned by the company InternetWebDesign.com Inc.

SteveJobs.org is up for sale by its owner, who also owns SteveJobs.es.

(Image of Steve Jobs unveiling Apple products in Sept. 2010 via Apple.com)

Categories
Disputes News WIPO

Apple’s IP lawyers get control of domains like UsedMacs.com before case decided

Used Macs

Just over a week ago, Apple Computer filed a domain name dispute with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over five names registered to Wachter Consulting Inc.

Four of the five domains named in WIPO case number D2011-1866, have now been transferred from Wachter Consulting Inc. to Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, a law firm that has successfully represented Apple in the past in dozens of patent and trademark infringement cases.

The domains that were transferred to Apple’s name servers include imacstore.com, macdaily.com, mactimes.com, and usedmacs.com. 

It appears the best of the bunch, applestores.com, is still in the possession of Wachter Consulting, according to WHOIS records.

Although the case is still listed as ‘Active’ online with WIPO, it’s possible Wachter Consulting decided to turn over the names even before a decision was handed down.

Chances are the case will remain ‘Active’ until all of the names have been transferred, voluntarily or otherwise.

[Updated November 10, 2011 3:19am EST:  Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton has now taken ownership of AppleStores.com.  The law firm also took ownership of アップルストア.com (‘Apple Store’ in Japanese).]

(Photo of Apple Power Mac G4 with an Apple Studio Display via Collin Grady)

Categories
Disputes News Technology WIPO

Apple files domain name dispute over AppleStores.com, UsedMacs.com

Apple Store

Apple’s legal department has been keeping busy in 2011, filing a new domain name dispute with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over five names which belong to the same owner: Wachter Consulting Inc.

A total of ten cases have been filed by Apple Inc in 2011 going back to January, when Apple filed a complaint over aplle.com and won.

The domains involved in the latest dispute (WIPO case number: D2011-1866) include: applestores.com, imacstore.com, macdaily.com, mactimes.com, and usedmacs.com.

Wachter Consulting Inc. owns over 6,000 domains including web addresses like LAClippers.com and VintCerf.com.  The company has been a respondent in disputes in the past, which involved mercede.com and matériel.net.  In both disputes, Wachter Consulting Inc. won. 

This time however, it may prove difficult for Wachter Consulting to hold on to their ‘Apple’ names.

Apple has been having success all year long and in recent disputes, winning AppleiPods.com and iPods.com, among many notable web addresses it has filed complaints over.

Apple currently has three cases open with WIPO, which involve names like appleproductsonline.com, applebigdiscount.com, applesdiscount.com, applessales.com, and applestorewell.com.

One case it surprisingly hasn’t filed in 2011, is that of iPhone4S.com. 

Apple fans expecting to learn more about the iPhone 4S, are currently greeted by a not-so-safe-for-work surprise when typing in the web address iPhone4S.com into their browser.

I wrote about the NSFW site back in mid July after a leaked photo of a rumored iPhone 4GS turned up on Weibo. 

One would expect a domain dispute to follow soon.

(Photo of Apple Computer — Apple Store, Michigan Avenue (Chicago) via TonyTheTiger)

Categories
News

‘Remembering Steve Jobs’ domain now re-directs to Apple’s official website

Remembering Steve Jobs official site

Sadly, after Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs passed away on October 5, hundreds of people flocked online to register and capitalize on ‘Steve Jobs’ domain names. 

One such domain was RememberingSteveJobs.com. 

The domain had first been registered in early 2009, shortly after Jobs gave a statement in January saying he had been suffering from a “hormone imbalance” for several months.  The domain expired in 2010, but was registered again on the day he passed away by Brett Burky, who had launched his own one page website.

It now appears Apple owns the domain name. 

On October 18, the domain name went behind WHOIS privacy and is now re-directing to Apple’s official ‘Remembering Steve’ page which it recently launched. 

It’s unknown whether Apple paid money for the domain or whether the previous owner handed it over.

RememberingSteve.com also points to the official ‘Remembering Steve’ page at the time of this story.

DNW reported earlier this month, 600 related domain names (mostly tasteless) were registered at Go Daddy alone, in the 36 hours following news of his death. 

Some shut down sales their sales threads, after news broke that people were trying to sell web addresses.

It’s good to see these two domains being used properly.

Discussion: 9 to 5 mac

Categories
News Trademarks

Apple files three iMessage trademarks, in wake of iChat integration rumors

ichat

Last week tech blogs speculated that Apple was building in iMessage support into OS X Lion’s iChat instant messaging software, after a developer revealed to Mac Rumors a code string with two new properties: timeDelivered and timeRead.

On the same day the news broke on September 14, Apple filed three different trademark applications for iMessage with the United States Patent and Trademark Office that may be able to offer more insight into the plans for iMessage.

Here’s a quick look at each trademark filing.

Serial No. 85423006
Goods and Services: computer software consulting; application service provider (ASP) services featuring computer software for transmission of text, data, images, audio, and video by wireless communication networks and the Internet; application service provider (ASP) services featuring computer software for electronic messaging and wireless digital messaging; information, advisory and consultancy services relating to all the foregoing

Serial No. 85422999
Goods and services: Communication services, namely, transmission of text, data, images, audio, and video by wireless communication networks and the Internet; electronic messaging and wireless digital messaging services; information, advisory and consultancy services relating to all the foregoing

Serial No. 85422982
Goods and services: Computer software for the transmission of text, data, images, audio, and video by wireless communication networks and the Internet; computer software for electronic messaging and wireless digital messaging

Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac