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Microsoft going after another Halo 4 beta site

Company's legal team taking action against Halo4beta.biz with National Arbitration Forum.

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343 Industries likely won't be hosting a public beta test for Halo 4, but that isn't stopping shysters from giving keys away anyway.

Don't be fooled, Halo4beta.biz is a fake.
Don't be fooled, Halo4beta.biz is a fake.

As spotted by domain and trademark sleuthing website Fusible, Microsoft filed a complaint (No. 1432610) with the National Arbitration Forum today over Halo4beta.biz.

The fraudulent website remains online and claims to have Halo 4 beta codes, which it says will be dispatched at a clip of 300 per week. To score a Halo 4 beta code, visitors are asked to "Like" the website's Facebook page, post a message to their Facebook Timeline, and take a survey.

Additionally, Halo4beta.biz displays the logos for Halo Waypoint, the Xbox 360, and 343 Industries. The site also shows what it claims to be Halo 4 beta art, though the image it displays was a widely circulated Halo: Reach render.

The specifics of the complaint are not immediately available, but the grievance was filed under the forum's Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.

The outline of this policy states Microsoft must show how the domain name (Halo4beta.biz) is either identical or "confusingly similar" to a trademark or service that Microsoft has rights to, why the domain holder has "no rights or legitimate interests" in the name, and why the domain name is to be considered as "having been registered and used in bad faith."

An arbitration panel consisting of either one person or three will deliberate and reach a decision, which will be posted at a later date.

As Fusible points out, a WHOIS search reveals an Illinois resident is the owner of the domain. As of press time, neither the owner of the website, nor Microsoft, had responded to GameSpot's requests for comment on the matter.

In January, Microsoft filed a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum over Halo4beta.net under the same policy. That case remains pending.

Halo 4 is due out this holiday season on the Xbox 360. It is a direct sequel to 2007's Halo 3, stars super soldier Master Chief, and is part of a new series dubbed The Reclaimer Trilogy.

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