Tag: microsoft

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News Trademarks Video Games

Microsoft files trademark for Iron Brigade combat video game

Iron Brigade

Microsoft has filed a trademark for a video game called Iron Brigade, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Not much is known yet about which military unit the game refers to, but as states across the country commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, it’s possible the title is a reference to the “Iron Brigade”, an Union Army infantry brigade which suffered the highest percentage of casualties of any brigade during the Civil War. 

Other possibilities include present day U.S. military units such as the 2nd Brigade of the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division, but with the timing of the filing, it seems more likely the game will be centered around the American Civil War.

The trademark filing  (Serial Number: 85381616) occurred on July 26, 2011 and says nothing more than for use as computer game software.

A filing back in June for Bloodforge, turned out to be a combat action title set in ancient Celtic world for its online game hub Xbox Live Arcade.

I will update this post as I get more information.

Discussion: Joystiq

Categories
News Video Games

Halo4.com story sparks lively discussion about domains, squatting at video game news sites

XBOX Halo 4

My Wednesday night story on Microsoft acquiring the domain name Halo4.com from Scott O’Reilly sparked discussion about domains across a number of video-game news sites and blogs.

Kotaku, part of Gawker Media’s “Gawker” network of sites, was the first to publish this story with proper credit to this blog.

After the story went online at Kotaku under “The Annals of Cybersquatting”, almost 24 hours later and thousands of page views here, more video-game news sites and blogs from around the globe wrote about the acquisition including MeriStation, 3D Juegos, Gamers.fr and more.

Discussion among readers got lively.

Here, I selected some of the best comments.

The Owner of halo4.com Probably Made a Lot of Money, but He Isn’t Saying [Kotaku]

Vondruke:  Things like this shouldn’t be allowed and I wonder why it is. I mean if you own the IP you should be able to own the URL.

Kimochi Sama: you’re just jealous because you couldn’t snap the domain first to sell it for sizable cash

Microsoft obtains Halo 4 domain via secret dealings [ComputerAndVideogames.com]

Nitramuse:  Probably rubbing his hands watching his bank account increase. If MS was herassing him, he’d say it…I’m sure.  And now, he receives a s**tload of money, under the condition to “not talk about it, or we want our money back and we’ll keep the domain name. Sign here, please”.

StonecoldMC: *lightbulb moment*  Goes off to register the domain of halo5.com

Microsoft Obtains “Halo4.com” Domain from Man in the US [VGChartz]

scat398: it’s actually against the law to squat on domain names now…so more than likely his rights to the name were taken…with little or no money changing hands.

KylieDog:  In other news, a side character going by the name of “O’Reilly” was just revealed in Halo 4.

Categories
Disputes News

Will Microsoft broker a deal for the domain name Halo4.com?

HALO 4

Microsoft will be releasing Halo 4 at the end of 2012, as reported by a number of sources including ars technica. 

“It’s official. As expected, at this morning’s E3 keynote, Microsoft revealed both Halo 4 and an enhanced remake of the original Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo 4 will be the start of an all-new trilogy and will launch on the 360 at the end of next year. And unlike some of the more recent entries in the franchise, it stars none other than Master Chief.”

Once again though, Microsoft doesn’t own the domain name for an upcoming title.  In this case, Halo4.com.  The unidentified owner has put up the name for sale at Sedo with an asking price of $10,000.

Halo domain names

Halo4.com isn’t the only domain related to the Halo franchise Microsoft doesn’t own.  The company also doesn’t own Halo.com or Halo1.com.

The company does own Halo2.com and Halo3.com.  Both Halo2.com and Halo3.com were acquired by Microsoft on April 27, 2004.  Halo2.com switched straight over to Microsoft Corporation, while Halo3.com was put in Microsoft’s broker’s name Trout & Zimmer, before switching over to Microsoft Corporation nearly two years later on February 23, 2006, according to DomainTools.  

In 2010 Microsoft launched Halo Reach without owning the domain, a name it still doesn’t own.  However, it did finally acquire Kinect.com. 

Readers:  What do you think?  Will Microsoft purchase the name for $10,000 via Sedo from its current owner, acquire the name through other means like a domain  dispute, or simply do nothing?

Categories
News Video Games

Confirmed: Microsoft Corporation now owns the domain Kinect.com

Kinect.com domain name

When Microsoft launched its now-popular Kinect, the controller-free add-on for the Xbox in early November, it didn’t own the domain name Kinect.com.  Kinect.com has been registered since the nineties and the domain name re-directed to CAHG.com, a company that helped others grow their leadership brands. 

Earlier this week, back on Dec. 30th, Andrew Allemann of Domain Name Wire and other bloggers and writers described how Microsoft had filed a UDRP to get the following domain names:  MicrosoftKinect.com, KinectWorld.com, KinectPro.com, and KinectReviews.us.  At the time of the story, Microsoft still didn’t own Kinect.com.

While it appears many reported the news about the UDRP cases, no one has reported that the domain name switched owners on New Year’s Eve.

As of December 31st, 2010, the domain name is now registered to Microsoft Corporation.

Domain Administrator
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way 
Redmond WA 98052

Created on…………..: 1998-11-17.
Expires on…………..: 2014-11-16.
Record last updated on..: 2010-12-31.

The change in owners comes only days after Microsoft filed the first UDRP cases. 

According to registrant records, Microsoft now owns the Kinect.com domain name.  

kinect registrant

While the price of the name remains undisclosed, one can only imagine what Microsoft had to shell out.  A recent article in Gamasutra pointed out that Microsoft aims to sell 12.1 million units of the Kinect device by the end of 2011 after the company already sold 2.5 million units worldwide through November.

Over a year ago, Microsoft acquired the domain name Office.com in a transaction that was highly publicized by a number of technology sites after it was revealed that Microsoft used a company called Marksmen, a Microsoft contractor to purchase the name for an undisclosed amount.