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Motorola Trademark Holdings registers Motorola Turn domains [UPDATED]

Motorola Turn

Motorola Turn

This week, Motorola Trademark Holdings registered several domain names around the word “Turn” for some type of new consumer product. 

The domain purchases include names such as MotoTurn.com and MotorolaTurn.com.

It’s unknown at this time what may come of the Motorola Turn.  Will it be a mobile phone?  A tablet? Or some other product or accessory?

In mid February, the US Department of Justice approved the merger of Google and Motorola Mobility.

Here’s the full list of names that were registered on March 14, 2012, each of which are located on MotorolaMobility.com DNS servers according to the Whois records.

http://whois.domaintools.com/moto-turn.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/motorola-turn.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/motorolaturn.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/mototurn.com 

[Update 1 on March 25:. Motorola filed a trademark application (Serial Number: 85569635) for MOTOTURN on March 14, 2012, with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  The goods and services cover: “Set-top boxes; network access control, encryption and authorization software and services that allow Cable and Video Operators the capability to receive, process, control and distribute digital video, audio, and data services.”]

Discussion: MobileSyrup.com, Phandroid, Softpedia and Ubergizmo

(Image of Motorola at MWC 2012 via Motorola.com)

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Disputes National Arbitration Forum News Trademarks Video Games

Google files a complaint over the GooglePlay.com domain name

Google Play

Google introduced Google Play earlier this week and one of the key missing pieces for the online launch was the domain name GooglePlay.com.  That’s because the name has been owned by someone else and not the search engine giant for years.

But Google isn’t wasting any time trying to get the domain name to go with its new entertainment hub.  A complaint (Case No. 1432449) has now officially been filed with the National Arbitration Forum.

Google submitted a trademark application (Serial Number: 85560994) with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on March 5, 2012, one day before officially announcing the launch of Google Play on its official blog.

The goods and services in the trademark filing cover:

computer software for transmission and display of digital content, audio works, visual works, audiovisual works, electronic publications, books, movies, and music; computer software for browsing and accessing digital content, computer software, computer games, audio works, visual works, audiovisual works, electronic publications, books, movies, and music

online retail store services featuring digital content, computer software programs, computer games, audio works, visual works, audiovisual works, electronic publications, books, movies, and music

providing temporary use of non-downloadable computer software for browsing and accessing digital content, computer software programs, audio works, visual works, audiovisual works, electronic publications, books, movies, and movies; providing temporary use of non-downloadable computer software for transmission and display of digital content, audio works, visual works, audiovisual works, electronic publications, books, movies, and music

Today, GooglePlay.com is owned by a resident of Japan according to Whois records.  The site displays third party ads in Japanese.

Google uses play.google.com as its online destination and is most certainly bleeding traffic to GooglePlay.com.

In order for the name to be transferred to Google, the National Arbitration Forum Panel will determine if the disputed domain meets the following three elements required under the ICANN policy:

(1) the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark in which the complainant has rights
(2) the owner has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name and;
(3) the domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith. 

As I reported at the beginning of the month, Google registered a slew of googleplay domain names in late February through the brand protection company MarkMonitor, but missing in the list was googleplay.com.

Discussion: The Next Web, Techmeme, Electronista, NU.nl, Marketing Land, WebProNews and Softpedia

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News

What is Google’s RoboHornet?

RoboHornet.com Whois record

It may be nothing, it may be something.  But what is known is that Google privately registered the domain names RoboHornet.com and RoboHornet.org on February 17, 2012, then removed the Whois privacy and transferred the domains to its own name servers a week later.

RoboHornet.com (Whois) and RoboHornet.org (Whois) were both registered through internet brand protection company MarkMonitor. 

According to Whois historical records, Google chose to keep the registrant information private.  That is, until the record was updated on February 24, revealing Google Inc. as the owner.

So, what is RoboHornet?

I won’t bother speculating at this point, because Google buys new domain names all the time for a variety of reasons, including future projects that may never see the light of day.

However, after a brief internet search, I did come across a small piece of information.  On May 4, 2011, it appears a Google developer created a project called RoboHornet on Google Project Hosting, a free collaborative development environment for open source projects.  

As of today though, the RoboHornet project home page returns a 403 error.

Neither RoboHornet.com nor RoboHornet.org resolve to a web page.

Discussion: Marketing Land

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News

Google Inc. registers more GoogleWeb, ChromeWeb, and Screenwise domains

Chromewebworks.com Whois

Search Engine Land’s Matt McGee reported earlier this month that Google had registered a number of Labs, Screenwise and Adwords domains. 

Among the list of fourteen names were domains like GoogleWebLab.com, ChromeWebLab.com, and ScreenwiseMedia.com.

Now Google has registered more variations of GoogleWeb, ChromeWeb and Screenwise.

On February 23, Google picked up ChromeWebDev.com, ChromeWebWorks.com, GoogleWebDev.com, GoogleWebWorks.com, and ScreenwiseSelect.com.

It also appears Google privately registered ScreenwiseSelectPanel.com (Whois) and ScreenwiseTrendsPanel.com (Whois) through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor.

The Screenwise domains supplement Google’s Screenwise (screenwisepanel.com), a panel of a few thousand people who are paid to gather data.  As noted by Search Engine Land, the domains hint that Google is serious about becoming a consumer data gatherer and source.

While the purpose of obtaining the Screenwise domains is pretty obvious, less is known about the GoogleWeb and ChromeWeb names.

At the time of this story, none of the new domains resolve to a web page.

Discussion: Marketing Land

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Disputes National Arbitration Forum News

Google goes after YouTube typo domains that it didn’t win in a previous dispute

YouTube logo

YouTune.com

Google has been going after popular typos of the web address YouTube.com in recent months and it’s been having its share of success in disputes, winning five typo domain names in early January and several more later that month in another case that also involved Google typo domains.

However, in a separate complaint (Case No. 1413915) that reached a decision in late December 2011, Google only batted .740, as reported by Domain Name Wire. 

In that case, Google won rights to 37 typo domain names, but lost its claim to 13 infringing domain names like YouTune.com because the Panelist found that the 13 domains were registered prior to the trademark filings with the USPTO of January 30, 2006.  As Domain Name Wire pointed out, it appears Google got screwed. “The first use in commerce date on the trademark is April 24, 2005, which predates the 13 additional domain registrations.”

Google hasn’t given up hope on winning those 13 domains.  

According to a new filing (Case No. 1428476) with the National Arbitration Forum this week, Google is once again going after: tyoutube.com, youstube.com, youtbue.com, youttube.com, youtubenaruto.com, youtubr.com, youtubube.com, youtubve.com, youtune.com, yoututbe.com, youtuube.com, youyube.com, and yutub.com.

As with all domain disputes, each Panel examines three elements before reaching a decision.

(1) is the domain name identical or confusingly similar to a trademark in which the complainant has rights
(2) the owner has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name and;
(3) the domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith. 

If all three elements are satisfied, then the domain names will finally be ordered transferred to Google.

Each of the typo domains named in Google’s latest complaint, send visitors to an online survey scam (as shown in the picture above of YouTune.com), that asks a series of questions and attempts to gather personal information by promising free gifts like an iPhone 4S or an iPad 2.

Discussion: The Next Web, Marketing Land and DNFBlog.com