Updated: Take-Two Opposed Trademark, But Settled It
from the r-u-serious? dept
As a few people in the comments pointed out, this story is not just old, but it’s out of date, as Remedy and Take Two settled this dispute last year. We apologize for messing up the story, but will leave the original below (with strikethroughs) to remind us to be better about checking our sources.
Take-Two Interactive has already established itself as an IP bully. There are plenty of examples of this from the past several years, but my favorite remains the company’s opposition of a trademark for Rockstar Axe Throwing merely because it had the name “Rockstar” in it. No concern was given to how similar the logos and names in total were, nor the simple fact that the axe-throwing industry and the video game industry aren’t terribly related to one another.
At least in the latest instance of Take-Two opposing a trademark, both companies are in the video game space. Little else about the opposition makes a great deal of sense, however. Take-Two has opposed Remedy Entertainment’s new logo, claiming a concern over customer confusion, simply because the logo is dominated by a stylized “R”.
Take-Two Interactive has filed an opposition to Remedy Entertainment’s newest logo, claiming the symbol infringes on Rockstar Games’ logo despite the two having little in common besides the letter “R” representing a video game publisher. First reported by RespawnFirst, the trademark dispute was filed against two versions of the Remedy logo (one with the company’s name, one without) in September with the UK’s Intellectual Property Office.
The UK’s IP rules mean Take-Two’s objection to the logo suggests Rockstar’s parent company sees “a likelihood of confusion by the public.” Engadget reached out to Take-Two and Remedy for comment, and we’ll update this article if we hear back.
So, how “little in common” do the two logos have? Well, they basically have almost nothing in common other than both of them featuring predominant “R”s in the logo. The color schemes are different. The fonts are different. The entire branding is very, very different. Don’t believe me? Here’s Rockstar’s logo:
And here is Remedy’s:
If those two logos confuse you, I don’t know what to tell you. And making this all the more bizarre is the fact that these two companies are actually business partners! The two companies are jointly working on modern remakes of Remedy’s famous early Max Payne games.
Ironically, the two studios are currently working together on a revamp of the game Remedy’s new logo is diverting away from. In April 2022, Remedy said it would collaborate with Rockstar on fully remastered versions of the first two Max Payne games, bringing the oughts-era franchise to a new generation.
And so what we have here is an overly protective Take-Two Interactive opposing the logo for its own business partner over essentially a singular letter in the English alphabet.
How that makes any sense is a question I simply cannot answer.
Filed Under: likelihood of confusion, r, the letter r, trademark, trademark bully
Companies: remedy entertainment, take two interactive
Comments on “Updated: Take-Two Opposed Trademark, But Settled It”
What next? Mary Kay and T-mobile getting into it with Pink over … Pink?
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Don’t give them any ideas…
Look, let’s believe them at face value. “They” “think” that these are “similar”. Give them the mental help they need as they are clearly brain dead.
If there is one thing that things like this have taught it it is that executives and ip and trademark lawyers are the dumbest, stupidest, people on the planet.
Next: Rockstar opposes the registered trademark symbol.
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®ockstar will remember this in the future.
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No, Rockstar registers the registered trademark symbol in the same way that Disney registered the names of story titles in the Public Domain to stop others using them in any way whatsoever.
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Can’t wait for tomorrow’s article complaining about Big Daddy Musk.
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Yeah, I bet you call him daddy all the time.
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Elon’s still not going to have sex with you.
It’s weird how companies will automatically think that their audience is as thick as they are when it comes to brand recognition.
In the gaming space, there are few logos as iconic as Rockstar’s, so this is either a case of Take-Two being complete morons or outright malicious. And despite the existence of Hanlon’s Razor, I’m leaning towards the latter.
Re: Having worked for a Take-Two company…
When I was testing a Where’s-Waldo-like minigame in TwoDots when I was working at PlayDots (the studio had been shut down since January 13, 2023), I was worried since in the minigame, there were recreations of copyrighted artwork of Réné Magritte and Salvador Dali. I asked it it was © infringement, and I got word from Take-Two’s legal team that it was fair use.
So I have a feeling that Take-Two knows what they’re doing, legally speaking. They may not have the acumen of Nintendo, but they have a good legal team.
That being said, they did take down a game called NotGTAV for trademark infringement. I mean, seriously, the game is literally called “not [big AA game]”; how the fuck will I think it is [big AAA game]? The name was changed to “notthenamewewanted” and eventually delisted from Steam, but the damage was done.
So my conclusions? My former employer is being a bully rather than fools. That being said, I wouldn’t trade my time working for them for anything (especially since one of the employee perks were free Steam and Nintendo Switch codes for Take-Two games!)!
That entire industry is in dire need of death (and maybe rebirth).
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I vote for death and total annihilation. The intellectual property industry should’ve never been born. It serves no actual purpose.
I wonder what Microsoft owned Rareware and their R logo that Pre-dates Rockstar think about this.
Ae you seious ight now? Eveyone should be able to use a lette all on its own. Thei existing tademak should be canceled ight away!
Deja vu ?
Didn’t this already happen and get resolved over a month ago? Is this a new complaint or a rehash of the one that already happened?
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It’s a different complaint. Take-Two are notorious for engaging in ridiculous trademark cases.
I’m confused. Is the second logo Rockstar’s?
This is a late, woefully uninformed article. Not only is this a non-story because of the fact that it was resolved amicably LAST YEAR, but also because these two companies have been working on projects together since before this happened, and continue to do so.
@Strawb This is not a different complaint. This is a lazy, months-old repost without the effort to update with new information.
Old news, move on.