Lets it die in committee.
Tag: Trademark
NCSoft Still Intends To Use City of Heroes
Ubisoft Has More Immortals Trademark Headaches
The second time this title has had trademark problems.
Continue reading “Ubisoft Has More Immortals Trademark Headaches”
Hi-Rez Still Fighting For Global Agenda
Steam: Biohazard Village Gets Blanked After A Few Days
We have Resident Evil at home.
Continue reading “Steam: Biohazard Village Gets Blanked After A Few Days”
NCSoft Files New Trademark For City of Heroes
It has been more than eight years since NCSoft shutdown City of Heroes and unsurprisingly there are still a lot of people who haven’t quite forgiven the developer for its transgressions. As MMO Culture noted this week however, it looks like NCSoft has filed new trademark applications for the City of Heroes brand. Could this mean something new on the horizon for City of Heroes?
Our guess? It might have something to do with the rogue server negotiations that have been going on for some time now. It might also be related to the fact that NCSoft’s trademarks for City of Heroes have all died. The prior trademarks for City of Heroes, Going Rogue, Freedom, etc, have been listed as abandoned for several years now. You see, in order to keep a trademark going you have to show that it is still in active use; a reason to be protecting it.
Since NCSoft has had no interest in the City of Heroes name for nearly a decade now, their lawyer never bothered submitted a notice of continued use. Once a trademark is knocked off for lack of notice, it is unrevivable. You want it back, you’ll need to file a new application. So why does NCSoft suddenly want the trademark back? It could be that they just didn’t notice it had expired, it could be that they are protecting their interest in the names as part of the negotiations with the rogue server teams.
It could just NCSoft wanting to collect its toys so nobody else can play with them. We will have to wait and see.
Source: Trademarkia via MMO Culture
In Plain English: Epic Takes On Counterfeiters
Here’s a quick tip on counterfeiting merchandise from one of the most litigious companies in the gaming industry: Don’t.
Epic Games is back in court, because the company refuses to let its lawyers have an easy week. This time around, the company isn’t going after Fortnite cheat distributors. On April 25, 2019, Epic filed suit in the Northern District of Illinois for the sale of products in connection with the registered trademark of Fortnite. The lawsuit contends that the defendants are going to great lengths to hide the extent of their operations and are selling inferior quality products designed to look like authorized merchandise.
Who are the defendants? Good question. Epic lists them as individuals and businesses residing in China and other foreign jurisdictions.
Epic seeks relief on charges of counterfeiting and trademark infringement, false designation of origin, violation of the Illinois Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and has demanded an enjoinment from using the Fortnite brand, passing off counterfeit products as genuine, that all profits gained through the counterfeiting operation be handed to Epic or that statutory damages of $2 million USD for each use of the Fortnite trademark be awarded. They also seek reasonable attorney fees and any further damages the court might award.
Epic’s attorneys are meeting with the court today (April 30) to discuss a motion for temporary transfer of defendant’s domain names, temporary asset restraint (freezing assets), expedited discovery, service of process by email, among other motions.
MMO Fallout could not ascertain the identities of the defendants, as those documents have been sealed by the court, possibly to prevent potential defendants from transferring assets in anticipation of a restraint. Similarly, there are no exhibits of such merchandise available at this time for potentially the same reason.
As always, the court dockets have been provided at our expense to you, the reader, at the Google Drive linked below.
Source: Google Drive
[Rant] Another Day, PUBG Tries To Claim Ownership of “Chicken Dinner”
It must be a day ending with Y, because PUBG Corp is once again trying to fraudulently claim ownership to something it definitely didn’t create.
If PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has anything to tell us here at MMO Fallout about Brendan Greene, it’s a tale of a man deluded by his own creation. While nobody would argue the success of PUBG and that the game popularized the Battle Royale genre and made way for the titles that follow, it’s hard to get past the vast delusion of PUBG Corp. and its dreams of owning just about everything related to video games.
In its grandiose claims, PUBG Corp made bold-faced lies to the Korean courts and attempted to present a history that they were the first game to use a frying pan in a comedic fashion in a shooter (they weren’t). They go on in the lawsuit to claim ownership of everything from health bars to grenades, two story tall buildings, real-world weapons, and more. We’ve seen various thinly veiled claims from Greene and PUBG Corp. that would imply a belief that they deserve royalty payments from any game in the Battle Royale genre, as well as consultation from developers who might dare to create a title that PUBG Corp didn’t. All this despite PUBG Corp apparently having no problem plagiarizing from other sources.
Of course it should also be noted that of the parties present, only Bluehole has seen employees be criminally convicted and sentenced to prison for stealing from other developers.
But now PUBG is getting in a fight with the Chinese Intellectual Property Administration and once again it is over claims to something they didn’t create. PUBG Corp. is suing over the phrase “winner winner chicken dinner” which they are attempting to trademark. The trademark was rejected as it isn’t a formal business trademark, and now PUBG is taking the government to court. The phrase has been in existence since before 100% of the employees at PUBG Corp. have been alive, but that isn’t going to stop their lawyers from frivolously claiming ownership of what very clearly isn’t theirs.
I will follow up as soon as PUBG Corp. attempts to claim copyright ownership of the concept of people bleeding from gunshot wounds.
Other than that, I have no opinion on the matter.
IPE: MMO Fallout Hit With DMCA Takedown
Hello folks,
I initially grappled with whether to publish this piece, and just decided to go with it. It came to my attention over the weekend that MMO Fallout, specifically our domain host, has been hit with a DMCA takedown notice. The notice was sent to us in regards to an In Plain English article that was published last year, and it appears that someone is unhappy enough with our coverage and publicization of the events that they’ve decided to claim that our usage of their name in coverage and the court dockets infringes on copyright and trademarks.
Now MMO Fallout knows its legal rights and will not be voluntarily taking down this article. I have nearly full confidence in our hosting provider that they will see the takedown for what it is and will ignore it. That said, I fully understand that it is in their best interest under US Copyright law to act now and make me defend myself later, so I decided to publish this notice as a warning that, on the off chance this website suddenly goes dark over the next few days, you know what happened.
With that, I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
[NM] Bad Press: Don’t Read Too Much Into Konami’s Trademark Renewals
Konami this week silently renewed its trademarks for Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid in Europe and the press is already speculating on what this could mean: A Playstation Classic lineup? Remakes? Remasters? A surprise announcement at the game awards? Don’t hold your breath.
This story comes up whenever a developer is found to renew trademarks in some territory and while the speculation will certainly bring in views and thus ad revenue, the answer is rarely newsworthy. Right now the only upcoming Metal Gear related release that the public is aware of is Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation Classic. Apart from that, all is silent over at the smouldering remains of Kojima Productions.
That said, the fact that Konami is renewing the Metal Gear trademarks is nothing to get prematurely excited about. Outside of defunct developers, this process is done essentially on an automated basis or by third parties in order to ensure that said trademarks don’t lapse. Nintendo still owns trademarks for games dating back to the arcades and NES games from the 80’s that they have no intention of ever selling or developing sequels for, yet don’t want the trademark to lapse.
Konami may never develop another Metal Gear Solid game again, but they aren’t going to let the trademark expire because that means other parties could use it, and if there’s one thing that game developers hate it’s other people making use of their unwanted property.
MMO Fallout 