FutureMark Responds to Pwnage Trademark Ire

In what can only be described as the lamest excuse ever, Jukka Mäkinen, Executive Producer, Futuremark Games Studio, has responded to the ire raised when word floated to the surface that his company had decided to file a trademark for “Pwnage.”

The Finnish software company had initially filed papers on the prevalent word on Feb. 26 to protect the word in relation to:

“… computer game software; computer game programs; computer game discs; interactive multimedia computer game program; downloadable ring tones, … multimedia software recorded on CD-ROM featuring fictional characters and computer games; pre-recorded DVD’s, video tapes, laser discs featuring movies about fictional characters, and pre-recorded compact discs featuring music; motion picture films on fictional characters…”.

But they did it, Mäkinen says, to protect their company, not make money:

Fellow gamers,

Our purpose in filing for trademark on the name “Pwnage” is not to charge money or stop people from using the expression. That’s not what a trademark is for. Instead, we want to protect ourselves from squatters (or what I call campers) – people looking to trademark the name on false pretenses, just to make a claim against Futuremark Games Studio for its use.

Jukka Mäkinen, Executive Producer, Futuremark Games Studio

What confuses me is how Pwnage in anyway has anything to do with Futuremark Games Studio. I mean, sure, I suppose you could use the word and the company in this sentence: Futuremark was pwned by the United States Patent and Trademark Office when they tried to trademark a word that had no rights to.

Maybe they should patent n00bs instead.

Futuremark responds to “Pwnage” trademark controversy [Futuremark's YouGamers Site]