Breaking update July 19, 2011 04:57 AM EST: The identity of ModernWarfare3.com has now been revealed.
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Activision has had enough with ModernWarfare3.com.
The gaming company has filed its first domain name dispute with the National Arbitration Forum.
The complaint was filed today, July 15, a week after the mystery owner of the domain started re-directing the URL to EA’s Battlefield.com, sparking a flurry of news stories.
Although I track domain disputes filed with the National Arbitration Forum and the World Intellectual Property Organization, I didn’t find out about the dispute through their online databases, instead I found out about the dispute when I paid a visit to ModernWarfare3.com.
As of today, ModernWarfare3.com is back to its old format online, but with a twist. Sitting on the home page is a copy of the complaint (read here) the owner received.
Now begins the UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy), which was adopted by ICANN in the late nineties.
The complaint cost Activision $2,600 USD to file for a three-member panel.
The 11-page document, includes among other things, reasons by Activision as to why the respondent has no right or legitimate interest to the name.
Activision states, “It appears that the Respondent supports the game Battlefield from the game developer Electronic Arts (“EA”). EA is one of Complainant’s principal competitors in the video game industry, and Battlefield game competes in the marketplace with Complainant’s MODERN WARFARE games and its other military-themed shooter games in the CALL OF DUTY series.”
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