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Microsoft Register Sony/Microsoft Domains
It looks like Microsoft and Sony may be planning some sort of partnership, if Microsoft’s most recent domain purchases are anything to go by! On the 13th July they registered sony-microsoft.com, but waited to register microsoft-sony.com till after the news of the initial registration broke, presumably as a defensive measure.
According to several news blogs they also registered microsoft-sonly.com which had many people wondering if this was simply a typo or had another meaning eluding to the project they may be working on together. When I checked the registration details of this domain again today however, the domain no longer exists at the registry, so it looks like a typo after all! Interesting that they didn’t choose to hang onto it “just in case” however to protect the two brands, but anyone would be foolish to go ahead and try to register it now, infringing on two powerful trademarks.
Although Microsoft and Sony have teamed up before, back in 1997 when they worked on PCs, peripherals and software, it is unclear what the intended collaboration is this time. Microsoft have been quick to try and squash any rumours that there is anything going on, and Frank X. Shaw, a rep for Microsoft has stated on his Twitter page:
“RE: Sony/MS domain names: Sony = great MS partner. No scoop here, this was just a defensive domain hold. Let’s move on to weekend, kay?”
Seems a little strange to me that they would wait till 2011 to register these names when the collaboration was publicly announced 4 years ago, but it certainly doesn’t look like anyone is admitting anything for the moment! On the same day these domains were registered, Microsoft also registered MicrosoftGain.com and MicrosoftGain.net which both auto forward to a Bing search page of “Microsoftgain” which returns a number of articles about how Microsoft have gained market share in various areas over the last few years.
Interestingly both microsoftsony.com and sonymicrosoft.com were registered in 2009 by someone affiliated with neither company – and if Microsoft currently are on a brand protection spree, I would assume this person is going to be receiving a UDRP notification sometime in the not so distant future!
Who knows what the future may hold, are these domains just defensive registrations or is it all a ploy to keep something up-and-coming underwraps? Only time will tell, but you never know, it could be the collaboration of Xbox and Playstation!