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Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land Some trademark filings make sense, or we can at least see where they’re going. Neverdead? Sure. Someone’s working on a zombie game. But then Ubisoft goes and uncorks “Horse Gaga” and yes, the mark is for a video game.
Another cull of patent and trademark filings turns up this gem: Jimmy Buffet’s “Margaritaville,” the soundtrack for public drunkenness and amphitheater-humping for more than two decades, has been trademarked for use in a video game.
Two new trademark applications point towards EA studio Visceral Games journeying back to the 19th century to visit London’s original serial killer, Jack the Ripper.
Electronic Arts has asked the United States to cancel five trademarks held by Tim Langdell’s Edge Games, saying the marks have been effectively abandoned. In comments to Kotaku, EA portrayed its actions as done on behalf of the development community.
Tim Langdell, the CEO of EDGE Games, which has been at the heart of many controversies regarding trademark rights to the word “Edge” in video gaming, has stepped down from the board of directors of the International Game Developers Association.
In the latest salvo in the let’s-claim-credit-for-a-commonly-used-term-that-we-didn’t-even-create War(TM), Finnish software company Futuremark Games Studio filed papers on February 26, 2008 to protect the trademark “Pwnage” 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…”.
Wow… at least they aren’t attempting to apply it to every piece of media published or anything like that.
Rumors of Apple gunning to enter the handheld games market have been circulating for a while, but a new trademark application discovered by Trademork dated Feb. 5th seems to lend credence to the rumor mill. According to the application, Apple is upping its trademark to include “Toys, games and playthings, namely, hand-held units for playing electronic games; hand-held units for playing video games; stand alone video game machines; electronic games other than those adapted for use with television receivers only; LCD game machines; electronic educational game machines; toys, namely battery-powered computer games.”
