Well, this is weird. Someone has asked the US Patent and Trademark Office to scrub the trademark for Ubisoft’s upcoming Watch Dogs. A request that’s been called “fraudulent”, since it didn’t actually come from Ubisoft.
Earlier today, the publisher sent a notice to the USPTO (emphasis added):
Ubisoft Entertainment submits this Petition to the Director under Trademark Rule 2.146 to prevent the abandonment of Application Serial No. 85642398. A fraudulent Request for Express Abandonment was recently filed in connection with Application Serial No. 85642398.
Facts
On February 1, 2014, Ubisoft Entertainment received an email from TEAS@uspto.gov notifying Ubisoft Entertainment that a Request for Express Abandonment had been filed in connection with Application Serial No. 85642398. The Request for Express Abandonment purports to be signed by the Chief Executive Officer of Ubisoft Entertainment, Yves Guillemot.
Mr. Guillemot, however, did not sign the Request for Express Abandonment, nor did Ubisoft Entertainment file the Request for Express Abandonment. The Request for Express Abandonment is fraudulent and was not filed by Ubisoft Entertainment or its representative.
Ubisoft says “We are working directly with the USPTO on reinstating the trademark for Watch Dogs and it will be active again in the coming days. The matter has no impact on the Watch Dogs’ development.”
Makes you wonder…who’d go to the trouble of not just filing the paperwork, but forging the signature of Ubisoft’s boss? That’s a little above and beyond your standard trolling.
Form [USPTO, via Game Informer]
Comments
6 responses to “‘Fraud’ Pretends To Be Ubisoft, Tries Cancelling Watch Dogs’ Trademark”
And a new generation of trolling begins.
Thanks news companies for spreading the idea on mass.
Its not the media fault tho. Initially there was news that watch dogs was cancelled because the trademark was being abandoned.
After clarifying with ubisoft it seems like it was fraudulent and you can see from the trademark form it got updated.
Just slow news lately on kotaku. It happened two days ago.
Seems like someone was trying to be an IRL Watch Dog.
This doesn’t smell like PR to anyone else? A game about hacking and IP/identity theft gets its IP hacked? Come on folks…
I was thinking the same thing actually
Possibly, but on the other side of the coin people on the net are bastard coated arseholes.
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if some squeaker did it to protest the delay. You see it all the time these days, players who think the best way to get results is to actually throw a spanner in the works.
Just recently a popular steam game in beta had to deal with a troll who was posting scripts that allowed people to crash servers, his excuse was that the devs weren’t fixing the problem.
When asked if he had actually gathered all his info together and sent it directly to the devs he said no, got upset and crashed the forums for 15 mins.
Probably the same guy who pulled the fallout prank.