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AOL to launch NVIBE social network? Domain acquired, trademarks filed

AOL

It looks like AOL Inc. plans to launch a new social networking site called NVIBE, more than a year after selling Bebo, a social networking site it had acquired for $850 million in 2008.

On September 9, 2011, AOL became the owner of the domain name nvibe.com.  On the very same day, the company filed five different trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office covering a range of goods and services including online local and community social networking services.

So far, AOL has made no announcement, and no other technology or news site has mentioned NVIBE, but by the looks of things, NVIBE.com is slated for some type of local social network.

Here’s a quick look at the five trademark applications, filed last week with the USPTO.

Serial Number: 85419192
Online social networking services; online local and community social networking services

Serial Number: 85419185
Providing a website that enables users to connect with people in a particular neighborhood or city; Providing user-defined content and content of others selected and customized based on the known or estimated geographical location of users

Serial Number: 85419176
Providing neighborhood and community information in the fields of education, entertainment, local events and activities, current events, shopping, arts, culture, and sports; Providing information about community and neighborhood livability

Serial Number: 85419162
Providing geographic information, destination information, interactive maps, and driving directions via computer and communications networks; Providing information, news, and commentary in the field of travel via computer and communications networks

Serial Number: 85419151
Providing information and news in the field of local business

At the time of this story, nvibe.com does not resolve to a web site.  Here’s the current Whois record for nvibe.com.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Techmeme, Business Insider, Webrazzi, San Francisco Chronicle, Financial News Network Online, @mathewi, The Motley Fool, BusinessWeek and Denver Post  

Updated September 15, 2011 5:24am:. I discovered AOL also owns neighborhoodvibe.com and registered five trademarks for “Neighborhood Vibe” in August 2011, similar to the NVIBE trademarks; serial numbers 85391630, 85391628, 85391626, 85391625 and 85391623.

Neighborhood Vibe by AOL

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Disputes National Arbitration Forum News Trademarks Video Games

ModernWarfare3.com domain name battle ends with an Activision triumph

Modern Warfare 3

Modern Warfare 3

The domain battle between Anthony Abraham and Activision over ModernWarfare3.com has come to an end.

A three-member panel of the National Arbitration Forum has ordered the domain name transferred.

Earlier this year Anthony Abraham launched an unofficial fan site for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, attracting thousands of Facebook fans in a matter of days.

In late June, Abraham began lashing out at Activision, the publisher of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, in a series of statements and videos that appeared on the ModernWarfare3.com website, and throwing support instead to Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 3.

Activision eventually filed a complaint (read here) which revealed the identity of the Battlefield 3 fanboy.

According to the decision posted online, Abraham argued that the term “modern warfare” is generic and is not monopolized by Activision.

Activision was required to prove that modernwarfare3.com is identical or confusingly similar to its trademark, that Abraham has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain; and the domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.

The three-member panel ruled in Activision’s favor today, having established all three elements required under the ICANN Policy.

Here is a copy of the decision by the National Arbitration Forum so you can read all the details.

Discussion: Game Informer, Joystiq, NeoGAF, CVG, GamesIndustry.biz, MCV, Ubergizmo, The Escapist, G4, Eurogamer.net, 1UP, Tiscali, Gamespot, FZ, Kotaku and Gaming Union

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News

Salesforce.com is the mystery buyer of $2.6 million Social.com [UPDATED]

Salesforce.com Social Enterprise

Salesforce.com appears to be the buyer who paid $2.6 million in late June 2011 for social.com, this year’s top selling domain to date, that has been publicly reported.

The buyer in the social.com sale, which was co-brokered by Marksmen’s Cyntia King and Moniker.com’s John Mauriello, was never revealed.  The purchase set off speculation about the new owner ranging from Twitter to Living Social and even Salesforce.com.

However, up until now there hasn’t been any clear idea as to the buyer.

The primary contact for the domain is Alica Del Valle who is the Trademark Counsel at Salesforce.com.  It didn’t take very much research at all to figure it out.  It started with a few Google searches and I was able to connect the dots after using Network Solutions’ “User ID recovery tool” even though the domain was behind its not-so-private registration services.

I went to the Network Solutions “Forgot Your Login?” page and entered the domain social.com, then clicked the button: Retrieve Your User ID.   The resulting page showed Alica Del Valle as the primary contact, as shown here.

No big news, as others had already done this before but just never connected the name “Alica Del Valle” to Salesforce.com.

Alica Del Valle according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, is not only the attorney of record for Salesforce.com (scroll to bottom of filing), but has been the Trademark Counsel at Salesforce.com since July 2011 according to Alica’s own LinkedIn page.

Earlier in the week I had guessed Salesforce.com was the buyer of Social.com after discovering Salesforce was the buyer of Do.com, a “Coming Soon” site for a yet-to-be launched business productivity app.  The company had brokered the domain Do.com through Marksmen.  Do.com was also hidden behind Whois privacy at Network Solutions using the very same moniker “ADV”.  The privacy was finally removed two days after my Do.com story ran, officially revealing salesforce.com as the owner.

Last week at Dreamforce, Salesforce.com Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff welcomed more than 30,000 attendees to the Social Enterprise.

At the time of this story being published, the Whois information for social.com remains regsistered to “ADV” behind Network Solutions’ private registration services.

The web address still does not resolve to a web page, however the buyer no longer appears to be a mystery.

Updated Nov. 30:  Marc Benioff confirmed publicly at Salesforce.com’s Cloudforce New York that he did buy social.com.

**

Talking about this story: TechCrunch, Louis Gray, Domain Name Wire, BillHartzer.com and Elliot’s Blog (blog)

Categories
News

Another new programming language? Google registers DartLanguage.com

Programming language

This makes not one but two batches of language related domains Google has registered in recent days. 

On September 1, Google registered several domain names revolving around the words ‘Dart’ and ‘Language’ including DartLanguage.com, GoogleDart.com and many more.

At the end of August Google filed a trademark application for Spot and purchased several domains including SpotLanguage.net.  While no trademark application for ‘Dart’ as a programming language has surfaced yet, Google does have trademarks for DART (such as DART search) which it retired after acquiring Doubleclick.  And you can bet that a trademark application will be filed with the United States and Patent Trademark Office any time now.

The list of new registrations include:

http://whois.domaintools.com/dartlang.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/dartlang.net 
http://whois.domaintools.com/dartlang.org   
http://whois.domaintools.com/dartlanguage.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/dartlanguage.net 
http://whois.domaintools.com/dartlanguage.org   
http://whois.domaintools.com/googledart.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/googledart.net 
http://whois.domaintools.com/googledart.org 

Google went as far to even purchase dart-lang.com, dart-lang.net and dart-lang.org.

Here’s a look at the Whois record for DartLanguage.com.

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

    Domain Name: dartlanguage.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…………..: 2011-09-01.
    Expires on…………..: 2013-09-01.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-09-01.

    Domain servers in listed order:

    ns1.google.com
    ns2.google.com
    ns3.google.com
    ns4.google.com

Discussion: The Next Web, Search Engine Land and t3n

Categories
News

Evidence on next Kindles being named after elements like Earth, Water, Air

Kindle

In early August I wrote about Amazon acquiring the domain name KindleAir.com for possible use with its next generation of Kindle devices. 

After a little domain sleuthing, the pieces of the puzzle appear to be falling into place and it looks like Amazon will be using elements like Earth, Water, Air and more, to name its next line of Kindles.

KindleAir.com was the first hint, but I’ve now discovered that Amazon has secretly acquired the domain names KindleEarth.com, KindleWater.com and — both domain names were acquired on July 6, 2011.  

Although both domains are registered at Go Daddy and hidden behind its privacy service Domains by Proxy, it’s simple to reveal Amazon as the owner by using Go Daddy’s public Account Retrieval System, which in June finally addressed other privacy issues with the tool.

All one has to do is simply try and retrieve a customer number online from Go Daddy’s main website (as shown in the picture below).  You select a product from a list (for example “Domain Name”), enter your email address, then enter a security access code by retyping the graphic number shown on the screen.

KindleEarth.com

If everything is a successful match, a “Process Complete” message is displayed indicating the information requested will be sent to the email address entered.  I used hostmaster@ amazon.com, the e-mail address Amazon regularly uses when registering domain names through its various registrars including MarkMonitor and Go Daddy.

If something is entered wrong, a message displays stating for example, “Email address not found”.

For both KindleEarth.com and KindleWater.com, the retrieval process was successful and a “Process Complete” message was displayed. 

Process Complete

So, just to add a little more fuel to the Kindle rumor fire, it appears Amazon will be using these names for a possible Kindle product line.  Similar types of names might also be used like Kindle Wave.com, which DNW wrote about yesterday.

Using Go Daddy and its privacy service, is the same secret method Amazon used before launching its Cloud Reader service in order to keep the product under wraps.  The company registered kindlecloudreader.com in late June but didn’t reveal itself as the owner until it unveiled the service in August.

Discussion: SlashGear, MediaBistro, Android Community, Geeky Gadgets, electronista and This is my next…