Posting pictures of celebrities as a profile picture… linking to a scene from a favorite movie on YouTube… Quoting a movie line… all of these things seem pretty harmless, but without owning the copyright, they’re infringing on someone’s intellectual property. And, if SOPA / PIPA passes, if someone visits your site and does any of those things in a comment, dear webmaster, you can be sued and your site taken down without a trial. Apparently, some people think DMCA doesn’t go far enough, and neither do warnings at the beginning of DVD’s.
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Today the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted unanimously not to block Google’s acquisition of the popular mobile advertising network Admob.
The following media release was issued today by the FTC regarding the Google Admob deal and the reasoning behind the FTC’s decision to let the deal stand:
After Thorough Review, Agency Finds Transaction Not Likely to Harm Competition
The Federal Trade Commission has closed its investigation of Google’s proposed acquisition of mobile advertising network company AdMob after thoroughly reviewing the deal and concluding that it is unlikely to harm competition in the emerging market for mobile advertising networks.
In a statement issued today, the Commission said that although the combination of the two leading mobile advertising networks raised serious antitrust issues, the agency’s concerns ultimately were overshadowed by recent developments in the market, most notably a move by Apple Computer Inc. – the maker of the iPhone – to launch its own, competing mobile ad network. In addition, a number of firms appear to be developing or acquiring smartphone platforms to better compete against Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android, and these firms would have a strong incentive to facilitate competition among mobile advertising networks.
“As a result of Apple’s entry (into the market), AdMob’s success to date on the iPhone platform is unlikely to be an accurate predictor of AdMob’s competitive significance going forward, whether AdMob is owned by Google or not,” the Commission’s statement explains.
The Commission stressed that mergers in fast-growing new markets like mobile advertising should get the same level of antitrust scrutiny as those in other markets. The statement goes on to note that, “Though we have determined not to take action today, the Commission will continue to monitor the mobile marketplace to ensure a competitive environment and to protect the interests of consumers.”
Mobile ad networks, such as those provided by Google and AdMob, sell advertising space for mobile publishers, who create applications and content for websites configured for mobile devices, primarily Apple’s iPhone and devices that run Google’s Android operating system. By “monetizing” mobile publishers’ content through the sale of advertising space, mobile ad networks play a vital role in fueling the rapid expansion of mobile applications and Internet content.
According to the FTC’s statement, evidence gathered by the agency raised important questions about the transaction. Google and AdMob have competed head-to-head for the past few years, with a notable increase in intensity during the past year. This competition has spurred innovation and allowed mobile publishers to keep a large share of the revenue generated from the sale of their ad space. The companies also have economies of scale that give them a major advantage over smaller rivals in the business, the statement says.
These concerns, however, were outweighed by recent evidence that Apple is poised to become a strong competitor in the mobile advertising market, the FTC’s statement says. Apple recently acquired Quattro Wireless and used it to launch its own iAd service. In addition, Apple can leverage its close relationships with application developers and users, its access to a large amount of proprietary user data, and its ownership of iPhone software development tools and control over the iPhone developers’ license agreement.
The Commission vote to close the investigation was 5-0.
Copies of the Commission’s statement can be found at www.ftc.gov. The FTC’s Bureau of Competition works with the Bureau of Economics to investigate alleged anticompetitive business practices and, when appropriate, recommends that the Commission take law enforcement action. To inform the Bureau about particular business practices, call 202-326-3300, send an e-mail to antitrust@ftc.gov, or write to the Office of Policy and Coordination, Room 383, Bureau of Competition, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. To learn more about the Bureau of Competition, read “Competition Counts” at http://www.ftc.gov/competitioncounts.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2180
For further information about the FTC decision to approve the Google Admob deal, you can download the following letters from the attorneys involved from the FTC website:
Not to lose a moment, here is the press release. Thanks to Vance Hedderel for providing it:
DUBLIN, IRELAND – 11 February 2010 – HYPERLINK “http://www.afilias.info”Afilias, a global provider of Internet infrastructure services and the registry operator for .INFO, today announced that it has acquired mTLD Top-Level Domain Ltd., the sponsoring organization and registry operator for the .mobi top-level domain. Under terms of the private deal, Afilias Limited, an Irish Limited company, has acquired all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of mTLD Top-Level Domain Ltd. (known publicly as dotMobi), and plans to continue operating dotMobi as a wholly owned subsidiary.
“Afilias has long been a leader in launching new TLDs and now supports over 50 percent of the entire universe of registrations in TLDs launched since 2001,” said Hal Lubsen, CEO of Afilias. “Our acquisition of dotMobi reflects our long term commitment to the success of the TLDs we support and the communities they serve. We are particularly proud of the global success of the .mobi domain, and look forward to working with the dotMobi team and the mobile community to build on this solid base.”
Afilias and dotMobi have worked closely together since the Mobi JV (predecessor to dotMobi) was started by Nokia, Vodafone and Microsoft to apply to ICANN for the .mobi TLD in 2004. Upon approval, Afilias provided registry services in support of the successful launch in 2006, and today there are nearly one million .mobi registrations. Now more established, dotMobi will benefit from the increased focus that a seasoned registry expert like Afilias will provide.
“The mobile Web continues to evolve and expand, and Afilias’ strategic domain expertise combined with mobile industry support will be a powerful accelerant for .mobi growth,” said Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi. “Afilias’ strategies for growing top-level domains have directly resulted in several of the world’s largest domains, and we are excited to work closely with Afilias’ management to achieve dotMobi’s full potential.”
“With its excellent registry and DNS support, Afilias has been a close partner since the beginning,” said Jerry Easom, Chairman of the Board of dotMobi. “This partnership, coupled with the success of dotMobi in furthering acceptance of the mobile web, makes moving the ownership of dotMobi to Afilias a natural progression. dotMobi founders, who include some of the largest companies in the mobile space, are looking forward to supporting dotMobi and the .mobi domain with involvement in both the MAG (.mobi Advisory Group) and the PAB (dotMobi Policy Advisory Board).”
Afilias provides registry and DNS services for more than 15 million domains, including more than 950,000 .mobi domains registered worldwide. In addition, Afilias supports .INFO, .ORG, .aero, .ASIA, .AG (Antigua and Barbuda), .BZ (Belize), .GI (Gibraltar), .HN (Honduras), .IN (India), .LC (St. Lucia), .ME (Montenegro), .MN (Mongolia), .SC (the Seychelles), .VC (St. Vincent and the Grenadines).
For more information on the details of this agreement please visit HYPERLINK “http://www.afilias.info/mobi” www.afilias.info/mobi .
About mTLD Top-Level Domain Ltd. (dotMobi)
Headquartered in Dublin, dotMobi is a worldwide leader in enabling the development & discovery of quality mobile content through innovative services, helping businesses and individuals reach the world’s billions of mobile phone users. dotMobi spurs mobile industry innovation by giving content providers the tools they need to ensure the Web will work on mobile phones with speed, accuracy and relevant content.
dotMobi, a wholly owned subsidiary of Afilias Limited, was founded by 14 visionary mobile operators, network & device manufacturers, and Internet content providers, including Ericsson, Google, GSM Association, Hutchison 3, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefónica Móviles, Telecom Italia, Visa and Vodafone.
For information on .mobi domains and all dotMobi services, visit HYPERLINK “http://mobiDomain.com” \t “_blank” http://mobiDomain.com, and on mobile devices, visit HYPERLINK “http://mobiDomain.mobi” \t “_blank” http://mobiDomain.mobi.
About Afilias Limited
Afilias is an Irish Limited company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland and is a global provider of Internet infrastructure services that connect people to their data. Afilias’ reliable, secure, scalable, and globally available technology supports a wide range of applications including Internet domain registry services to over 15 million domain names, Managed DNS, and services in the RFID and supply chain market with its Afilias Discovery Services. For more information on Afilias please visit HYPERLINK “http://www.afilias.info”www.afilias.info.
Event to feature top media and business thought leaders
Note: the links in this story are not optimized for mobile
The Naked Media show from ScribeMedia.org is offering free web viewing of their live broadcast from the Economist Media Convergence Conference in New York City on Tuesday, October 20th @ 3:15pm Eastern Time. Register now
The Future of Media: Changing Times will explore the following topics:
- How the advent of new technologies such as e-book readers, smart phones and flexible screen technology will change the media model.
- How will newspapers, magazines, book publishers, TV stations and others dependent on existing models, adapt to this change?
- The potential impact of these new technologies over the next five years.
According to The Economist,
The surge of new technologies and social media innovations in today’s environment is significantly altering the future media landscape for marketers. Consumer behaviour is changing and the way marketers reach their audience must also change. Marketers are searching for new ways to not only reach their customers, but to understand them, to peer inside their minds. As the level of consumer understanding increases, so can the knowledge of how best to reach them. However the plethora of tools at a marketers disposal is not easy to navigate and real learning comes from a real understanding of the future of media convergence.
Media Convergence forum gathers a unique speaking faculty of thought leaders, marketing psychologists, technology experts, futurists, media and marketing professionals to look into the future to consider the ideas, technologies and tactics that tomorrow’s best organisations will adopt.
Featured Speakers
- Angela Courtin, SVP of Marketing Entertainment and Content, MySpace
- Craig Newmark, Founder, Craigslist
- Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures
- Terry Davenport, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Brand Strategy, Starbucks
- Jack Dorsey, Chairman, Twitter
- Jeff Jarvis, Author, What Would Google Do?
If you are in New York for the live event, take $500 off the ticket price with the code NKMD on the registration page.
Sessions Include:
- Future of media: Changing times
- How the kids are doing it: Trendsetting
- The social media phenomenon: Branding success
- New media for marketers: Behind the hype
- Demonstration competition: The most exciting and game changing technologies will be showcased
Sacramento, CA (1888PressRelease) July 24, 2009 - In recognition of ongoing excellence in mobile web development, the Mobility.mobi forum community bestows top honors to the latest and most innovative .mobi websites in its .mobi-of-the-Month™ awards competition.
As the largest and most active .mobi community in the world, Mobility.mobi brings together thousands of mobile web innovators and thought leaders from around the globe. After the votes were counted, the clear winner of the July 2009 .mobi-of-the-Month™ award was Lodging.mobi.
Lodging.mobi is the first website in the world to provide hotel availability search and reservations that is compatible with a wide spectrum of mobile devices using industry standards for mobile web.
“We’re very honored that Lodging.mobi has received this recognition from the Mobility.mobi community,” says Michael Ferreira, co-founder and CTO. He continues, “Several months of intense development went into making Lodging.mobi the best hotel reservations website available on the mobile web and this award confirms we accomplished it.”
Andres Kello, founder of Mobility.mobi adds, “Lodging.mobi is stunning! Very thorough, with breadth and depth of results plus a clean and easy-to-use design. A great addition to the .mobi ecosystem and is best-in-class material.”
About Lodging.mobi
Lodging.mobi, a property of Off Deck LLC, is the hotel availability search and reservations website that is easy to use across a wide spectrum of mobile devices. With access to over 75,000 hotels worldwide, Lodging.mobi is dedicated to providing a rich, user friendly and secure experience to mobile web users. It is the new convenient way to find a place to stay from the palm of the hand, give Lodging.mobi a try today.
Contact:
Paul Gungner, co-founder and CEO
Off Deck LLC
P.O. Box 277317
Sacramento, CA 95827
Phone: 916-364-5658
www.lodging.mobi
About Mobility.mobi
Mobility.mobi is the largest and fastest growing .mobi and Mobile Web forum in the world, with an active community of thousands of mobile web developers, enthusiasts and .mobi domain investors doing business and sharing news and information about .mobi and mobile web in seven languages. Visit Mobility.mobi.
In the latest move by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), RedBull.mobi was ordered transfered from a private citizen to the Poland-based energy drink company.
According to the complaint, the registrant of the name signed a registration agreement in the Hebrew language, and stated in his response that he is commonly known by the Hebrew name “Shor Adom.” According to WIPO, “Use of a number of dictionaries shows that Shor Adom can be translated into the English words ‘red bull’ or ‘red ox’.”
Since the domain name did not have a website on it at the time of the WIPO complaint, it was difficult for the respondent to prove he acted in good faith. The strength of the Red Bull trademark is supported by over 140 trademarks and 200 related domain names.
The redbull.mobi WIPO complaint is Case No. D2008-1611.
Every year people claim “That this year is the year of the mobile web!” It kind of reminds me of the Chicago Cubs fans’ mantra, “Just wait ’til next year!” I believe we are on the verge of mass mobile web adoption in English-speaking countries, but I will stop short of saying it will happen this year. Expect some behavioral shifts in that direction, though. Here are my top seven predictions for the mobile web in 2009.
- I predict another year of expansive growth in mobile apps (iPhone/Android). These apps will allow people to stay comfortably inside their phones while venturing on to the mobile web. In my opinion, this is an extension of the “walled garden” concept. Instead of staying within the “walled garden” of the mobile provider, a large percentage of people will remain within the confines of what is available at the apps store.
- Mass adoption by individuals will be hindered somewhat by economic constraints as dataplans may not be seen as priorities in family budgets. I further predict this will be overcome as better content becomes available and consumers become aware of the benefits of mobile web surfing. Mobile social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn will lead the way.
- Sales of computer replacement devices such as iPhone will continue as families decide they are more cost-effective than computers. There is a precedent for this in Japan.
- Marketers will remain confused over how best to use the medium for another year or so.
- Search engine algorithms will improve to provide a heavier weight to mobile content in mobile search engine results.
- .mobi will continue to make progress as a business domain extension as more and more companies see the convenience of using companyname.mobi to redirect to their mobile sites as a courtesy to their customers. Additionally, companies who have seen their trademarks registered by domain squatters will file additional WIPO cases.
- More mobile payment options will become available to mobile website owners as the patent applications make their way through the system.
There you have it. Check this space in December to see which of these predictions have come true and which have fizzled.
Please note, due to technical difficulties you may not be able to comment on this post. The problem is being addressed.
DUBLIN, Ireland and WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ — dotMobi, the company behind the .mobi Internet domain designed to help consumers find content that works on mobile phones, today announced that more than one million .mobi domains have been registered since its launch two years ago.
From October 2006, dotMobi has seen continued growth in the amount of registrants as companies pursue the increased visibility and targeted marketing the mobile Web offers. Mobile content consumption is steadily growing while the lack of consistency and navigation issues that previously hampered mass consumer adoption are lessening.
In June 2008, dotMobi issued joint research with AKQA, a global creative agency. dotMobi found that 90 percent of respondents were interested in learning about the mobile Web. Brands and companies far and wide have turned to dotMobi for information on building and marketing mobile Web sites for consumers looking to access content while on the go.
Sites such as Nokia.mobi, Mercedes-Benz.mobi, Zagat.mobi and Bank of America’s BofA.mobi have been successfully promoted as custom, intuitive experiences for their users. These brands represent a small handful of the thousands of businesses who are embracing the mobile Web with sites across dozens of categories, including travel, automotive, consumer packaged goods, publishing and financial services.
The entertainment industry is also moving onto the mobile Web. Country music star Tim McGraw engages his audience via http://McGraw2go.mobi, where fans can download music samples, watch videos and keep tabs on the latest tour while followers of the Wu-Tang Clan can get the latest information about the group at http://wumusicgroup.mobi. Recent hit film Eagle Eye featured a special promotional “tie-in” site with US electronics retail giant Circuit City at http://ee.mydas.mobi as does the upcoming blockbuster James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, with Sony Australia at http://quantumcode.mobi.
Along with the .mobi domain, dotMobi as a company has continued to grow. To aid the expansion of the mobile Web, the company has created a wealth of free tools for developers, available at the mobiForge.com mobile web developer forum, which now boasts more than 20,000 members. Free resources such as the ready.mobi report and award-winning DeviceAtlas device database show business owners what they need to do to make their site successful with their customers on virtually every Web-enabled cell phone on the planet.
“dotMobi has established relevance, order – and now success – in what two years ago was a muddled, confusing mobile Web world,” said Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi. “With the mobile Web gaining speed, and .mobi paving the way, we are excited to soon unveil the next generation of mobile Web tools and resources that will assist small-to-medium businesses in utilizing the mobile Web to reach a new audience: the mobile consumer.”
Amy Mischler, dotMobi’s Vice President of Brand and Identity Service, added, “To help continue the phenomenal growth of the mobile Web, dotMobi is making 200 highly desired ‘premium’ .mobi domain names available via a special online auction with Sedo (computer link) beginning Nov. 5 and running through Nov. 12, 2008. These .mobi names include actors.mobi, bands.mobi, blackjack.mobi, boys.mobi, cellphones.mobi, dvd.mobi, dvr.mobi, games.mobi, model.mobi, racing.mobi, stamps.mobi, vip.mobi and xxx.mobi.”
About dotMobi
dotMobi (the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd.), headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is leading the growth of Internet use from mobile phones with the .mobi domain name. Unique among domain name providers, dotMobi ensures that services and sites developed around .mobi are optimized for use by mobile devices, so that on-the-go consumers can have confidence that a Web site will work on their mobile phones when using a .mobi address.
dotMobi is backed by leading mobile operators, network & device manufacturers, and Internet content providers, including Ericsson, GSM Association, Hutchison 3, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefonica Moviles, TIM, Visa and Vodafone.
For more information on dotMobi domains and registration information, visit http://dotmobi.mobi. Visit the dotMobi blog at http://blog.mobi.
Click to call links (below) are enabled for mobile phones only, not computers.
For more information, please contact:
Vance Hedderel
dotMobi
+1-703-485-5563
vhedderel@mtld.mobi
Danielle Siemon
Edelman for dotMobi (U.S.)
+1-650-762-2947
danielle.siemon@edelman.com
Sasha Manners
Edelman for dotMobi (Europe)
+44-(0)20-7344-1200
sasha.manners@edelman.com
Yale University has filed an arbitration case with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) seeking to obtain yale.mobi. Currently, that domain name is registered at GoDaddy with the message: “This .MOBI domain is parked free, courtesy of GoDaddy.” It is not registered with an obvious trademark holder, such as the lock or forklift manufacturer, so we’ll be watching to find out how the case eventually resolves. Perhaps this world-class university is interested in developing a mobile version of their website.
The increasing number of WIPO cases with .mobi domain names and the legal fees incurred in the process are a wake up call to companies who have not yet secured their own .mobi domain names. Since widespread acceptance of the mobile web is in the early stages, now is a good time to start thinking about protecting company trademarks.
The yale.mobi WIPO case number is D2008-1568.
It’s time to get ready for an overhaul of mobienthusiast.mobi, and that means there will be a bit of confusion while categories are deleted and files are redirected. Please stand by, and use the “search” feature to find the article you would like to read. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may cause in the short term. Get ready for some great new features and a site redesign for 2009. Thanks for your continued readership!
