Tag: Domain Dispute

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Disputes Movies National Arbitration Forum News Trademarks

Domain dispute over ManofSteel.com, film set for release in December 2012

Man of Steel

Updated July 20, 2011:  Turns out the complainant in the case was DC Comics, not Warner Bros.  A single-member panel has ruled in favor of DC Comics and ordered the domain name to be transferred.  Details here.

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It appears Warner Bros wants the domain name ManofSteel.com for its big film project set to release in December 2012.

A complaint (case no. 1395018) was filed with the National Arbitration Forum (“NAF”) this week.  Though the complainant isn’t known at this time, DC Comics a subsidiary company of Warner Bros has owned the trademark on “The Man of Steel” since the 1980s. 

Over the last ten years, Warner Bros has filed (and won) a number of domain disputes including chasingsuperman.com, batman-costume.com, gilligansisland.com, harrypotterzone.com, justice-league.com, and dozens more.  The company’s claims were denied twice, once over djbatman.com and the second time over daisydukes.com which is owned by Rick Schwartz.  Rick Schwartz won the case after Warner Bros had not satisfied its burden of proof to establish bad faith registration and use under paragraph 4(a)(iii) of the Policy.

In the case of ManofSteel.com, which is currently registered to a LBR Enterprises in California, chances are the domain name will be transferred to Warner Bros. if they are the complainant.

The company also doesn’t own TheManofSteel.com, but no dispute has been filed as of yet.  The domain name is currently listed for sale at Sedo for $300 USD, a cheap price compared to what the company may have to pay in legal fees (should it file a complaint) for a legal dispute that is not guaranteed to go in their favor.

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Disputes News Video Games WIPO

Zynga wins dispute for domain name (zygnagiftcards.com turned over to game network)

Zynga Gift Cards
Zynga, the gaming company that purchased the Cityville.com domain for $38,225 in June 2010 and turned it into a record-breaking game on Facebook, has been successful in getting the domain name zyngagiftcards.com.

In early February, Zynga filed a domain name dispute with WIPO, as reported here on Fusible.  On March 31, the Whois records switched from Joanna Hewett to Zynga Game Network Inc.  It appears the name was transferred before a decision was even reached by a WIPO panelist. 

The company also filed a dispute over zyngaworld.com, a case that has yet to be decided.

Zynga to unveil plans for zyngagiftcards.com?

As I mentioned in my previous coverage, in March 2010 TechCrunch reported Zynga rolled out gift cards at a number of major retailers in the U.S. 

Zynga refers to their “gift cards” as “game cards“, but the company doesn’t own the domain and hasn’t filed a dispute with WIPO.

Zynga gift cards could be even bigger business as the company has its targets set on the world. 

In March, the company announced it set up a studio in India.  In the same story, it was reported Zynga Game Cards would be launching in more than 500,000 outlets in Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand

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Disputes News WIPO

Google Inc. files domain name dispute over Google TV typo — googletg.com

Google TV

Google Inc. has filed a complaint over the domain name googletg.com with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization. 

The domain name appears to be a typo of Google’s own googletv.com, which re-directs to the Google TV home page located at http://google.com/tv.   According to Compete, a site that provides free information for every web address on the internet, the typo doesn’t even get enough traffic to be statistically relevant. 

A look at Whois records shows the name currently registered to a, xuyecheng. 

Over the years Google has filed dozens of cases at WIPO and won.  As far as back as 2000, Google won wwwgoogle.com, but the company also goes after its other brands like vietnamadwords.com which it won in 2010.

Googletv Domain Typos

A number of variations of googletv.com such as googletv.info and googletv.org are registered to Google, however, many of the typos are not. 

The Domain Typo Finder provided by DomainTools, gives a clue as to what has been registered by individuals or organizations other than Google.

Once you type in the url googletv, results show dozens of typos already registered, and in many cases, to the same registrant. 

For example, “Song Bin”, is the registrant for wwwgoogletv.com, gogletv.com, googetv.com, gooletv.com, and gooogletv.com.

Another possibility for the domain dispute, if not over a typo of googletv.com, is over it’s country domain google.tg, for the country of Togo.

Categories
Disputes News WIPO

Twittersearch.com turned over to Twitter, after domain dispute filed back in Dec. ’10

Twitter Search

Back in Dec. 2010, Twitter Inc. filed a case against the owner of the domain Twittersearch.com with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization.  As TechCrunch first reported, the UDRP complaint was the first ever since the company was founded.

The disputed domain is now registered to Twitter Inc, according to the latest Whois information and data provided by DomainTools.  News of the ownership change has not been reported by any other blog or news site.

The web address continues to resolve to a GoDaddy parked page as it had before the UDRP complaint.

The UDRP complaint, case number D2010-2073, is still active with WIPO.  And though no decision has been officially announced by WIPO as of today, the registrant is now Twitter, Inc. 

Will Twitter go after more Twitter domains?

While Twitter hasn’t filed any new cases with WIPO, it’s possible that some degree of precedence has been set on twitter domains. 

Robin Wauters suggested that Twitter-search.com might be the next disputed domain, but my money is on Searchtwitter.com. According to a rough estimate by Compete, Searchtwitter.com receives just as much type-in traffic (often more) than Twittersearch.com. 

And the owner of the domain, even has a For Sale page online suggesting the domain is available for purchase.

Searchtwitter.com Twittersearch.com