Breaking news Polygon Editor cyber squats on LegoDimensions domain nam

[Faefrost]

Oh the stupidity! Polygon's Deputy News Editor Mike McWorther apparently heard what Lego's new secretly teased new game project, Lego Dimensions, was via back channels. And in a move of truly inspired stupidity decided to Cybersquat on the LegoDimensions.com domain name and point it at his Polygon article.

https://archive.today/g9FJx

(Archives used to preserve deleted tweet stupidity)

Needless to say hilarity has ensued. As it stands now the domain is pointing to Lego.com and McWhorter is trying to walk it back as a joke. Indications are the Lawyers are not amused.

[Navy Trooper Fenson]

Cybersquatting (for anybody who was too lazy to google it) means he bought the domain name "LegoDimensions.com" with the intention of selling it to Lego for a vastly inflated price because they need to have this website for promotion of the new game. Much like in the beginning times of the internet where random people bought domains like pizza.com that they were able to sell to actual pizza delivery services for a fortune.

In how far is what he did stupid/unlawful? From what I read on Wikipedia most legal cases of this are won by the squatter so he should be on relatively safe grounds. Or is it unlawful because Lego already was a trademark he does not have any rights for, or because he was in possession of secret trade informations so it would have been illegal for him to use this knowledge? Either way, Polygon and its writers should burn anyway.

[mostlytechnic]

Eh, I fault lego on this one. How on earth did they NOT already own that domain? As I read the story (didn't read your link, but I did read about it back when the game was first announced) - he'd heard rumors of the game the day before it was officially announced. Checked if the domain was bought as a way of checking if the name might be correct. When he discovered the domain was available, he snagged it, figuring that meant the rumors were wrong. But then when the game was announced the next day, Lego contacted him and he immediately turned it over to them without demanding anything.

So seriously, all Lego's fault IMHO. The should have bought the domain a year ago. Names are dirt cheap and if you're constantly buying them for every idea you have, it's not like anyone would figure anything out from it. The solution to "hiding" what you're doing isn't to wait on buying names till it's too late, it's to buy so many there's no meaning to them.

[Faefrost]

Cybersquatting (for anybody who was too lazy to google it) means he bought the domain name "LegoDimensions.com" with the intention of selling it to Lego for a vastly inflated price because they need to have this website for promotion of the new game. Much like in the beginning times of the internet where random people bought domains like pizza.com that they were able to sell to actual pizza delivery services for a fortune.

In how far is what he did stupid/unlawful? From what I read on Wikipedia most legal cases of this are won by the squatter so he should be on relatively safe grounds. Or is it unlawful because Lego already was a trademark he does not have any rights for, or because he was in possession of secret trade informations so it would have been illegal for him to use this knowledge? Either way, Polygon and its writers should burn anyway.

In this case he would lose instantly. Lego is a registered trademark and they have a clearly established legal history and a publicly stated policy of aggressively protecting it including not allowing their trademark to be used in domain names. You will note that the name of this site is "Eurobricks" not "EuroLego" or similar. Most fan sites are named "brick" because "Lego" is not permitted.

The bigger question is not so much the legality of what he did so much as the unethical nature of it as a working journalist. Polygon is kind of notorious for ethical violations and unprofessional behavior these days. At least in their core video gaming market. They are second only to Kotaku for bad behavior.

Eh, I fault lego on this one. How on earth did they NOT already own that domain? As I read the story (didn't read your link, but I did read about it back when the game was first announced) - he'd heard rumors of the game the day before it was officially announced. Checked if the domain was bought as a way of checking if the name might be correct. When he discovered the domain was available, he snagged it, figuring that meant the rumors were wrong. But then when the game was announced the next day, Lego contacted him and he immediately turned it over to them without demanding anything.

So seriously, all Lego's fault IMHO. The should have bought the domain a year ago. Names are dirt cheap and if you're constantly buying them for every idea you have, it's not like anyone would figure anything out from it. The solution to "hiding" what you're doing isn't to wait on buying names till it's too late, it's to buy so many there's no meaning to them.

Why they did not register it? These days many companies will not as the act of registering it is a spoiler or product announcement since registration is public. There was no risk for TLG in waiting as the name was part of a registered trademark, which a third party is not supposed to be able to register. It's not the lawless days of the early 90's anymore. While yes you can Cybersquat if you discover the name of a new movie or game. You can only do it if it doesn't incorporate someone's already in effect trademark or registered international business name. The more unique and better known the trademark the more enforceable it is. (Yes most registrars will let you do the registration, but challenging it often takes less than a day these days.)

[mostlytechnic]

Yeah, but I still say Lego was stupid to not have it already. Sure, if Lego registered 1 domain a year, that would give something away. But they should be registering 100 domains a year. 98 become nothing but redirects to lego.com, and the 2 that are "real" turn into something at the right time. Basically, if I was running a company like that (toy, music, movie, food, etc), I'd have "register relevant domain names" on the project checklist at a VERY early stage. They're dirt cheap and it would suck to not have one you want - or worse, find out too late that a name you're planning to use for your new product is already in use as a porn site or something.

Rather than deal with potential squatters or any other issue, just prevent it by grabbing any name you think MIGHT become something you want.

[Deathleech]

Ehh, why wouldn't Lego have gotten the domain name regardless? I mean I could see not doing it years or even several months in advance, but they didn't a day before the announcement...? It's not exactly like legodimensions.com gives away much anyways. Ok, so we know they are coming out with some new Dimensions theme, but other than that nothing is really revealed. It could have been a totally new theme for all we know like Time Cruisers.