social photo service Archives

It’s official: Google owns Photovine.com

Just over a week ago, on June 18, I wrote about Google filing a trademark application for “Photovine” and speculated that the company owned the domain name, photovine.com, after the Whois records switched to MarkMonitor and DNStination from its previous owner.

Now it’s official — Google owns the domain, photovine.com.

On June 23, the Whois record started showing Google as the owner.

Registrant:
        DNS Admin
        Google Inc.
        1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
         Mountain View CA 94043
        US

Domain Name: photovine.com

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

Created on…………..: 2004-10-28.
Expires on…………..: 2013-10-28.
Record last updated on..: 2011-06-23.

Domain servers in listed order:

gdm1.photovine.com
gdm0.photovine.com

You might also notice that the domain has its own nameservers, right now though, no other domain names are located there.

Google has not officially announced anything about Photovine, however there has been a lot of online discussion about what the service may be, based on the trademark application.

As of today, a message on the website simply reads: Nothing to see here, move along.

Discussion: The Next Web

Google set to launch Photovine? It applied for the trademark, now it owns the matching domain name

Google applied for a trademark on “Photovine” on June 7 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

As of June 14, it appears Google owns photovine.com. The company appears to have taken ownership of the domain name from Matthew Gibson, who had previously owned the name since January 2010 according to WHOIS records.

Although it doesn’t say on the WHOIS records that Google owns the domain, Google like many large companies uses MarkMonitor and DNStination, privacy and brand protection services.

Registrant:
        Domain Administrator
        DNStination Inc.
        303 Second Street Suite 800N
         San Francisco CA 94107

Domain Name: photovine.com

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

Created on…………..: 2004-10-28.
    Expires on…………..: 2013-10-28.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-06-13.

I had reached out yesterday to Matthew Gibson (the previous owner) for a statement and to learn more about the negotiations, but I haven’t heard anything at the time of this story.

So what exactly is Photovine?

Very little is known at this time, outside of the trademark application the company filed earlier this month. In 2004, Google acquired Picasa, a photo software and sharing service.

But is Google planning to take on Apple’s iCloud Photo Stream service?

Here’s a look at the trademark filing:

Word Mark PHOTOVINE
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer software
IC 038. US 100 101 104. G & S: Communication services, namely, transmission of visual images and data by telecommunications networks, wireless communication networks, the Internet, information services networks and data networks

IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: Non-downloadable computer software

IC 045. US 100 101. G & S: On-line social networking services

Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 85340503
Filing Date June 7, 2011
Current Filing Basis 1B
Original Filing Basis 1B
Owner (APPLICANT) Google Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View CALIFORNIA 94043
Attorney of Record Andrew Abrams
Type of Mark TRADEMARK. SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

Discussion: Engadget, TechMeme, Digital Trends, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Business Insider, The Next Web and Techie Buzz.