Disney purchased FanLib in May/June 2008, two months before FanLib's "closure."

[stewardess.livejournal.com]

Gotta love those public records. The tale of the FanLib trademark tells us bunches.

http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=76521061

It seems Disney began acquiring FanLib in May, 2008, and completed the process in June, two months before FanLib announced it was "closing."

I base this on the trademark records "Attorney Revoked And/Or Appointed" dated 5/28/2008, and "Automatic Update Of Assignment Of Ownership" on 6/11/2008. The first rumor of the buyout appeared June 3, 2008 -- a rumor FanLib denied right through its "closure" in August, 2008.

Disney now owns the FanLib trademark, which means it could resurrect it at some point; the FanLib software and servers presently support the Disney property Take180.com.

The FanLib trademark, classed as "Goods and/or Services," covers "providing temporary use of on-line non-downloadable software to facilitate the creation, conceptualization, and editing of a variety of movies, television shows, novels, plays, videogames, and other content or media, through user suggestions, concepts, ideas, collaboration, and voting."

Comments

[taiyoukai-nile.livejournal.com]

Websites get sold all the time. It is not a surprise that the actual move would start earlier. FanLib was not obligated to say anything until the end. Some sites just do not even say anything before disappearing like "a fart in the wind."

[melyanna.livejournal.com]

The interesting thing to me is that they were actively denying the rumors of a buyout well after the buyout had actually occurred.

[stewardess.livejournal.com]

Right. Chris Williams and David Williams have still not said anything publicly about the buyout. At the time of FanLib's closure, they let members speculate in the forums that FanLib was failing due to lack of funds.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

That's quite possible if they signed a non-disclosure agreement. It would still be binding.

[stewardess.livejournal.com]

I wish I had thought of looking up the FanLib trademark at the time. I didn't consider that Disney might own it, since the FanLib web site was shut down.