Tag: MarkMonitor

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News

Is Google planning to be more than just a client of RightsFlow? [UPDATED]

Google Rights Flow

Updated at 2:38pm EST:  Just as I speculated early this morning, RightsFlow has been acquired by Google.  The news was announced only news minutes ago.

***

Original post 4:11am EST: Google has made some interesting domain name registrations this week, revolving around the phrase “Rights Flow”. 

The search engine giant which officially launched its music streaming service Google Music last month, registered eight different names like GoogleRightsFlow.com, GoogleRights.com and GoogleFlow.net (GoogleFlow.com is owned by someone other than Google). 

It’s fun to speculate about Google domain registrations, although often they turn out to be nothing more than part of the company’s overall intellectual property strategy to protects its brands, not a product or service that is ever launched.

If you’re not familiar with the company, RightsFlow, which counts Google among its clients, provides intellectual property and copyright management services. 

According to the company’s website, RightsFlow is a leading technology-enabled provider of a mechanical licensing and royalty payment technology platform for online music services, record companies, distributors and artists.

Could Google end up being more than just a client of RightsFlow, to help it with its music service?  RightsFlow also has a product called Limelight, that allows anyone to clear cover songs quickly and easily, for one low price.

Guess we’ll have to wait to see what the domains end up as, or, to see if Google makes an announcement in coming days. 

Today, none of the domains resolve to a web page.

Here’s a look at the domains acquired on December 8, 2011, through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor.

Googleflow.net
Googleflow.org
Googlerights.com
Googlerights.net
Googlerights.org
Googlerightsflow.com
Googlerightsflow.net
Googlerightsflow.org

Categories
News Video Games

Small preview of unannounced iOS game by Zynga called Forestville

Forestville by Zynga

Over the weekend, I wrote about Zynga registering several new domain names for a possible up-and-coming game called Forestville, which the company has not yet announced. 

Today, an anonymous reader has tipped me to the fact there is a Facebook page that has been online almost a week, which offers more clues about the game.

The page appears to be legit.

A description of the game published on Facebook reads: “Help Daisy the fox and her furry friends build a fabulous forest habitat! Establish farms and fishing spots for food, decorate with natural wonders, and expand your forest to unlock new species. Play ForestVille from Zynga and create the forest of your dreams!”

While there is no game yet available to download and play, there is a photo album that includes pictures of Daisy the fox.

The web address for the page is: http://www.facebook.com/ForestVille.Zynga

A message on the Wall reads: “Watch your own forest habitat come to life in ForestVille by Zynga! It’s coming soon to your iOS mobile device!”

[Updated on Dec. 6 at 12:40pm EST:  It appears the URL no longer resolves to a web page, even if you are signed in to Facebook.  I did take a  screenshot of the page before it was taken down.]   

Discussion: Games.com, AllFacebook, Gamezebo, Piki Geek and Inside Social Games

Categories
News Video Games

Zynga has plans to launch Forestville, tipped off by domain name registrations

Zynga Forestville

Zynga Forestville

Zynga recently launched Castleville, but now the social gaming giant appears to have plans to launch a new game called Forestville.

This week Zynga registered several domains with the word Forestville in the name like ForestvillewithFriends.com and ForestvilleZynga.com.

All of the names were registered through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor that Zynga regularly uses to acquire domain names. 

And as I usually point out, though each domain registration is hidden behind MarkMonitor’s WHOIS privacy service ‘DNStinations’, MarkMonitor is in the business of helping Fortune 100 companies protect their brands online.  Zynga’s own Zynga.com is registered with MarkMonitor, as are hundreds of its other domains. 

So, there’s no doubt whatsoever that Zynga is behind these names.

Interestingly enough, Zynga doesn’t own the prime internet real estate: Forestville.com.  The domain is currently home to the Forestville Central School District website out of New York.  But that hasn’t stopped Zynga from registering typos of Forestville.com like wwwforestville.com (minus a ‘.’) or forestvile.com (minus an ‘l’).

Zynga did manage to get several country domains like Forestville.de, Forestville.jp and Forestville.co.uk.  A message on the home page of Forestville.de reads, “This domain is registered and protected by MarkMonitor”.

Below is a list of many of the names registered earlier this week.

forestvile.com
forestville.de
forestville.jp
forestville.co.uk
forestville2.com
forestvilleandroid.com
forestvilleapp.com
forestvillefacebook.com
forestvillegame.com
forestvillegamecards.com
forestvilleipad.com
forestvilleiphone.com
forestvillelive.com
forestvillemobile.com
forestvilleplus.com
forestvillewithfriends.com
forestvillezynga.com
playforestville.com
wwwforestville.com

At the time of this story going online today at 5am EST, Zynga has not made any announcement about the game.  So Forestville becoming a full-fledged game is just speculation until more news emerges from Zynga.

I’ve reached out to the Forestville.com webmaster to see whether they had been contacted about the domain and will update this story if I hear back.

Here’s a look at the WHOIS record for ForestvilleZynga.com.

WHOIS record for ForestvilleZynga.com

[Update 3 on Dec. 14, 2011: Zynga finally announced the game on it’s blog.]

[Update 2 on Dec. 9, 2011:  Zynga filed a trademark application (Serial Number: 85487695) for “Forestville” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.]

[Update 1 on Dec. 5, 2011 at 4:10pm EST:  It’s official.  There is a Facebook page for Forestville.  The game is headed to iOS, but hasn’t launched as of yet.]

Discussion: Joystiq, AllFacebook, VG247, Games.com, Shacknews, GameStar and Gamer Zona

Categories
News Video Games

Slew of ‘Justice League Heroes’ domains registered by brand protection company

Justice League Heroes

In 2006, Warner Bros. Games released Justice League Heroes, a video game based on the DC Comics’ Justice League of America.

Fast forward five years later to November 30, 2011, and a slew of ‘Justice League Heroes’ domains have been newly registered like justiceleagueheroes.org and joinheroes.org. 

Though hidden behind WHOIS privacy, the names were registered through MarkMonitor, a company that helps more than half of Fortune 100 protect their brands online.  So, it’s safe to say Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. is behind the secret registrations.

The list of names include:

dc-wecanbeheroes.org
dc-wecanbeheros.org
dcwecanbeheroes.org
dcwecanbeheros.org
joinheroes.org
joinheros.org
joinjusticeleague.org
joinjusticeleagueheroes.org
joinjusticeleagueheros.org
jointheheroes.org
jointheheros.org
jointhejusticeleague.org
joinwecanbeheroes.org
joinwecanbeheros.org
justiceleagueheroes.org
justiceleagueheros.org

Is Warner Bros. planning a remake of the video game or some other service or product?  Or are the domain purchases part of the company’s overall intellectual property strategy to prevent other people from using the names?

At the time of this story going online, Warner Bros. has not announced anything official.

Categories
News

Google acquires Spark Laptop domains – are laptops aimed at kids on the way?

Acer Chromebook

Is Google planning to release a kid-friendly or student-friendly laptop that runs the Google Chrome OS operating system?

This is just speculation, understand. 

But this week, Google acquired a handful of Spark Laptop domain names like SparkLaptop.com and SparkLaptops.com through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor.  According to WHOIS history, before November 29, the domains were privately registered.  Now the WHOIS records show Google as the registrant.

Google also acquired SparkBuy.com and SparkBuyMail.com.

Google began selling its Chromebook personal computer commercially this past summer, which were produced by Samsung and Acer.  

Last year, Best Buy partnered with Toshiba to develop a line of laptops made for kids called First Spark.  

It is possible that Google is planning to develop a similar laptop? Or does Google have entirely different plans for the names?

Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

(Photo of Acer Chromebook via Steven Walling)