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News Trademarks Video Games

Game Rumors: Zynga registers Mojitomo domain names, files for trademark

mojitomo

While rumors of Zynga’s imminent IPO continue to spread across news sites and blogs, the company appears to be busy behind the scenes working on a project called Mojitomo. 

The company filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on May 24, 2011. 

Here’s a look at the application from the USPTO website.

Word Mark MOJITOMO
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer game software; video game programs; and computer software platforms for social networking; interactive video game programs; downloadable electronic game programs and computer software platforms for social networking 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 in the fields of virtual communities, electronic gaming, entertainment, and general interest via the Internet or other communications networks with third partiesIC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Computer and electronic games provided online, enhancements within online computer and electronic games, and game applications within online computer and electronic games; entertainment reviews of computer games provided online; information relating to computer games provided online; virtual environments in which users can interact through social games for recreational, leisure or entertainment purposes
Standard Characters Claimed  
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 85328208
Filing Date May 24, 2011
Current Filing Basis 1B
Original Filing Basis 1B
Owner (APPLICANT) Zynga Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE 365 Vermont Steret San Francisco CALIFORNIA 94103
Attorney of Record John M. Kim
Type of Mark TRADEMARK. SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

‘Mojitomo’ domain names

Days before on May 21, it looks like the company registered several domain names using MarkMonitor, a brand protection company used by many of the world’s biggest companies.   Zynga’s own moniker, zynga.com, uses the same privacy and brand protection services provided by MarkMonitor and DNStination.

The domains included  mojitomo.com, mojitomo.net, and mojitomo.org, none of which had ever been registered before. 

While I have no proof that Zynga is the registrant of the domain names, there’s a very strong chance considering the names were registered only days before the trademark was filed.

I’ve searched the internet using the keyword “mojitomo”, but I couldn’t find any hints as to what the name could be used for.  Except for the Cuban drink Mojito, not much esle shows up.  There doesn’t appear to be any stories about Zynga and the word mojitomo, aside from this article. 

Could Zynga’s  Japan studio Unoh Games have a game in development?

Categories
Movies News

Sony Pictures registers domain names for yet-untitled “Killing bin Laden” movie

Killing bin Laden Movie

Earlier this month as reported by Deadline.com, The New York Times, Associated Press, and other news sites, Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired the rights to Kathryn Bigelow’s film about killing Osama bin Laden.

The film project was originally called “killing bin Laden” according to Deadline who first broke the story. 

After bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs, the project changed, and so did the title of the movie. 

Well, despite rumors that the film is untitled, Sony Pictures isn’t taking any chances. 

On May 26, only days after news broke of Sony’s deal with Bigelow, the company has registered nearly a dozen domain names related to the killing of bin Laden movie.  

Registrant:
        Domain Administrator
        SPDE Domain Names Inc
        9050 West Washington Blvd Smith Building 2014 A
         Culver City CA 90232
        ‘[email protected]’

    Domain Name: killingbinladen-movie.com

        Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
        Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com‘

Created on…………..: 2011-05-26.
    Expires on…………..: 2012-05-26.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-05-26.

Other names registered by Sony Pictures include the following:

killingbinladen-movie.com 
killingbinladen-movie.net 
killingbinladen.net 
killingbinladenmovie.com 
thekilling-movie.com 
thekilling-movie.net 
thekillingofbinladen-movie.com 
thekillingofbinladen-movie.net 
thekillingofbinladen.net 
thekillingofbinladenmovie.com 

The company missed out on some of the better web addresses. 

The domain killingofbinladen.com was registered May 2, 2011, while killingbinladen.com was registered May 3, 2011 after it had expired and became available again.

Kathryn Bigelow had better luck on The Hurt Locker, which won six Academy Awards including Best Picture.  The official site is located at the URL thehurtlocker.com. 

At the time of this posting, no other news site or blog has reported about Sony Pictures’ domain registrations. 

[Photo of the Situation Room in the White House via Wikimedia]

Categories
News

Founded by former TechCrunch writer, The Inquisitr sells for $330,000 on Flippa

The Inquisitr

The Inquisitr (inquisitr.com) founded by former TechCrunch writer and b5media co-founder Duncan Riley in May 2008, sold for $330,000 USD on Friday.

The site went up for sale on Flippa a week ago. 

In the last 6 months, it has run in the 7-8 million page view range based on statistics provided in the auction listing.  In terms of revenue, the site generated $15,449 per month in income based on an average over the last 12 months.

According to a post on The Inquisitr’s website, it sounds like Duncan is close to a near internet meltdown and just needs to disconnect for awhile. 

“Due to personal issues I need a break, and when I say break, I mean a full blown not be on the internet break. The site stats (traffic and revenue) continue to pay my bills, but you get to a point in your life that you know you need proper time off before you ended up committed with head problems, and I’m at that stage now,” wrote Duncan.

According to Wikipedia, in 2002 he launched The Blog Herald.  Then in 2005, he launched Weblog Empire which became part of b5media (another company he co-founded).  He joined TechCrunch in 2007, then resigned a year later in order to launch The Inquisitr.

Categories
News Trademarks

Dept. of the Navy files trademark for “SEAL Team” following news of Disney’s “SEAL Team 6” filing

Navy SEAL

A recent trademark filing from Disney for SEAL Team 6 was reported by MediaBistro on May 13.  The story sparked interest and news stories internationally.  

There was speculation among journalists and bloggers about Disney’s plans for the trademark.  The applications range from clothing and toys to entertainment and education products.

However, Disney’s trademark applications may not be as solid as many first thought. 

The same day the story broke that Disney filed three separate trademarks for the phrase SEAL Team 6, The Department of the Navy followed suit by filing for a trademark on SEAL Team.  

The filings are different, but the Navy is definitely taking notice. 

Quick Recap of Events

Osama bin Laden is killed on May 1 by SEAL Team 6.

Disney files trademark applications for SEAL Team 6 on May 3.

On May 13, Media Bistro breaks the news of the Disney filings.

Later that day (on May 13), The Dept. of the Navy files for a trademark on SEAL Team.

SEAL Team Trademark application

Here’s a look at the filing provided by the United States Patent and Trademark Office:

Word Mark SEAL TEAM
Goods and Services IC 200. US 200. G & S: Indicating membership in a(n) to indicate membership in an organization of the Department of the Navy that develops and executes military missions involving special operations strategy, doctrine, and tactics
Standard Characters Claimed  
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 85320305
Filing Date May 13, 2011
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Owner (APPLICANT) The Department of the Navy agency of the united states government UNITED STATES 875 N. Randolph Street Arlington VIRGINIA 222031995
Attorney of Record Geoffrey M. McNutt
Prior Registrations 3285473
Type of Mark COLLECTIVE MEMBERSHIP MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

At the time of this posting, no one else has reported this news. 

Here’s a screenshot of the filing from USPTO.gov.

SEAL Team Navy Trademark

[UPDATE May 19th, 2011 05:37 PM EST:  Thanks to MediaPost.  MediaPost Raw is the first major news publication to link to this story.]

[Photo of SEAL trainees via Department of Defense]

Categories
News

Google to offer free WiFi everywhere? WaziWiFi.com registered [UPDATED]

Google WiFi hotspots

I’ve been wrong before about the reasons behind domain name registrations by large corporations, as seen with my story on Amazon Android Tablets published over a week ago.  Yet, that story still got press coverage from CNNMoney, The Next Web, and Business Insider, despite my initial thoughts on the domain registrations being wrong.

Here’s another rumor for you that’s just in. 

Google is planning to offer “free” WiFi Hot Spots everywhere.  Or at least the company is planning to expand beyond Mountain View, California, where it currently offers coverage.  The Mountain View WiFi network started being offered in 2006.

Earlier this week, Google registered the domain name, waziwifi.com (Whois Record). 

While the term “wazi” isn’t something you’ll find in the English dictionary, in Swahili “wazi” means “open”. 

News of Google’s Ultra high-speed broadband in Kansas City, Kansas, was announced late last month on the Offiicial Google Blog, but according to Google’s FAQ page for its Google Fiber for Communities, as far as a wireless component being offered, Google had to say this: “Our focus is on developing a fiber-to-the-home network and we have no plans to include a wireless component at this stage. In general, we think wireless and wireline services are complementary, because wireless networks offer a nice degree of flexibility, while wireline networks can currently reach greater speeds.”

Will ultra high-speed WiFi hot spots hosted by Google be making there way across the United States?  Who knows, but in the meantime, here’s a look at the registrant record. 

Registrant:
        DNS Admin
        Google Inc.
        1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
         Mountain View CA 94043
        US
         +1.6502530000 Fax: +1.6502530001

    Domain Name: waziwifi.com

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

Created on…………..: 2011-04-06.
    Expires on…………..: 2013-04-05.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-04-06.

[Updated on August 30, 2011:.Google launches Wi-Fi in Nairobi.]