Domain watchdog Fusible reports that the National Arbitration Forum ordered the name transferred from Anthony Abraham to Activision. The publisher was required to prove modernwarfare3.com was identical to, or similar enough to cause confusion with, one of its trademarks; that the domain name was registered and used in bad faith, and that Abraham had no rights or legitimate interests with respect to the doman. The NAF found Activision proved all three, which is the standard under the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) policy for settling such disputes.
Abraham, for his part, argued that “modern warfare” is a generic term in this case.
Abraham’s stunt gained notoriety in July when the redirect was noticed, and some wondered if Electronic Arts had acquired the domain in a stunt. EA quickly denied any involvement. Abraham was later identified as the domain owner when Activision complained to GoDaddy, the service Abraham used to register the domain, and GoDaddy made the registry information public, a common move when there is a legal complaint regarding a registration.
ModernWarfare3.com Domain Name Battle Ends with an Activision Triumph [Fusible]
Jake
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 10:22 AMModern Warfare is a generic term….
Kinda glad this guy lost. I’m all for competition in games, hopefully battlefield 3 will make COD stop being such a money hungry game clone machine, but yeah, this was just childish and stupid.
Woods
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 10:26 AMStill plentiful in vitamins L, O and L though.
pk
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 12:23 PMI like this :)
Mic
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 5:43 PMI could see him arguing that Modern Warfare is generic. Modern Warfare 3 however, is not.
Neo-Kaiser
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 10:38 AMWhile it was a bit humourous it was also completely immature.
Meowgravy
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 10:47 AMIs that screenshot from MW3 or BF3?
Lol good news, fanboys piss me off!
Neo-Kaiser
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 10:49 AMHahaha, it’s funny because a fanboy would get incredibly offended that you can’t tell the difference from a hudless screenshot and could spend hours typing out paragraphs to “prove” their game is superior to everything.
Garygum
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 11:17 AMMW3. Sad, because it hasn’t progressed very far since MW1 in terms of graphics. I remember playing COD1 as my first shooting game, and it was pretty darn amazing at the time. Something to do with naming all the soldiers.
Now IW’s gone, and hopefully Activision has the good grace to let this franchise die before it descends into complete rubbish.
Slek
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 11:53 AMBEFORE it descends into complete rubbish?
Far too late, boyo! That happened years ago with MW2.
Boo Goose
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 12:28 PMModern warfare 2 was alright. Though if they don’t wrap the story up in MW3 I will be annoyed.
BJG
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 11:24 AMlooks like call of duty *puts on sun glasses* has been called off duty.
YYYYEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
(music starts)
Matt
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 11:51 AM+1
Matt
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 11:51 AM+1
Woods
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 12:00 PMCould’ve said +2 and saved precious resources.
jbm
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 12:11 PMActivision shot first!
Alinos
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 12:29 PMReally think this is crap.
If they didn’t do their homework they should have to buy it off him
Meteors
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 12:47 PMTotally. Has anyone registered modernwarfare4 or its variants yet? Modern4fare or some shit probably.
Mase
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 12:52 PMWhy spend money on buying it when they can get their overpriced lawyers take it from him by force?
Boo Goose
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 3:13 PMI dont think Activision has much money.
Darth
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 1:47 PMI still don’t know if I’ll buy MW3, it’s jut going to be another movie.
And who plays any of the Battlefield series games for the single player, seriously.
sharmona
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 5:13 PMI’m going to buy MW3. I’m going to enjoy it, no doubt.
Boo Goose
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 6:07 PMIm going to rent it.
Dain Bramage
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 8:16 PMProof that if you have enough money you can take the liberty from whom ever you please.
Franz
Sunday, September 11, 2011 at 6:32 PMActivision are clearly not the same company they were back around 2000, when they were a respectable company. Now they are a global disgrace. And it was so avoidable too, what a shame.