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News Take Two filed a trademark dispute over Remedy’s logo being “similar” to Rockstar’s, Remedy has stated the matter is already resolved.

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the Rockstar parent company has objected to trademark filings Remedy submitted to the Intellectual Property Offices in the UK and EU last year, over grounds that the logo is likely to cause “confusion on the part of the public.” Remedy publicly unveiled its updated “R” logo in a blog post on April 14th, 2023 — one day after the company filed its trademark application with the EU — saying that the “bullet in the letter R in the old logo represented the era of Max Payne,” and that it no longer reflected its wider game portfolio.
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The dispute started (specifically an opposition to the trademark in Europe) on July 26th, but doesn’t seem to have been publicly viewable until now.

Take Two notably owns the rights to Max Payne, and previously gave approval for Remedy to remake the first two games. which seem likely to be in jeopardy as a result of this garbage.
it’s particularly depressing considering this got out there a month after Max Payne’s original VO, James McCaffrey, passed away.
having remakes of the two games that started his career as a vital part of Remedy’s team would have been a lovely tribute to him.
 
What a stupid way to kill the Max Payne franchise. Take Two knows they don't own the letter R right?
 
I feel like there has to be a ton of other companies with the letter 'R' as their logo. Like Rare for instance.
 
Those logos aren't very similar beyond both including the letter 'R' lol. Maybe that's enough for a legal stink, but I would think the bar is a bit higher.

If I were Remedy I might just change the logo and avoid the kerfluffle. Sure, it let's the bully win, but the bully is bigger and has more money.
 
Weebos said:
Those logos aren't very similar beyond both including the letter 'R' lol. Maybe that's enough for a legal stink, but I would think the bar is a bit higher.

If I were Remedy I might just change the logo and avoid the kerfluffle. Sure, it let's the bully win, but the bully is bigger and has more money.
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Considering McDonald's couldn't get:

Mac
Big Mac
...or McDonald

In Europe on account of dictionary word use, pre-existing people and brands and the fact these are JUST STRAIGHT UP IRISH NAMES AND WORDS WITH NO CONTEXT OR DEFINING FEATURES, I doubt "we own capital R" will hold up.
 
Take Two really are awful, perhaps the worst of the big publishers for this kind of thing. They made an issue with the name of It Takes Two as well, which was just as ridiculous. Companies really should be more heavily punished for this kind of obviously frivolous, bullying legal action.
 
Seems like a TakeTwo/Rockstar kind of move yeah.

I keep the same stance for years: Rockstar? More like Diva.
 
Concernt said:
Considering McDonald's couldn't get:

Mac
Big Mac
...or McDonald

In Europe on account of dictionary word use, pre-existing people and brands and the fact these are JUST STRAIGHT UP IRISH NAMES AND WORDS WITH NO CONTEXT OR DEFINING FEATURES, I doubt "we own capital R" wil
hold Isn't Mac a Scottish word
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Reminds me of that "Edge" copyright dude who did the same to every person, company, product that contained the word "Edge".

Guess what kind of massive missile he took in his stupid face when he attacked Electronic Arts with Mirror's Edge ?
 
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OctoSplattack said:
...How the hell do they look the same???
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Actually, I think they're using the same font for the letter "R" here, except one is in italics, and has a slight extension into the star.

Honestly, they kinda do look a bit similar. I think the legal test for trademark issues like these are "could idiots in a hurry confused the two?" And honestly, yeah, an idiot in a hurry could confused the two. You quick glance at it, see a large, black, capital "R" in the same sans-serif printer typeface, and yeah, it could happen.

The real question is whether or not a law suit is worth it here. Of course, big corporations often don't take law-suits personally, so who knows whether or not this'll ruin their relationship.
 
Narroo said:
Actually, I think they're using the same font for the letter "R" here, except one is in italics, and has a slight extension into the star.

Honestly, they kinda do look a bit similar. I think the legal test for trademark issues like these are "could idiots in a hurry confused the two?" And honestly, yeah, an idiot in a hurry could confused the two. You quick glance at it, see a large, black, capital "R" in the same sans-serif printer typeface, and yeah, it could happen.

The real question is whether or not a law suit is worth it here. Of course, big corporations often don't take law-suits personally, so who knows whether or not this'll ruin their relationship.
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No, not even remotely similar.
The Rockstar logo uses italic Helvetica, Remedy seem to use Sequel Sans or a similar font - the Remedy R has a straight bar while the rockstar one is the classic Helvetica curved R - completely different fonts and intents behind the designs (Rockstar logo also includes the orange box around the R and the star none of which are remotely to be seen in Remedy's logo). You have to assume this issue came up with someone designing box art for Max Payne remakes and Rockstar didn't want two R logos next to each other or something stupid like that - but no from a design perspective they are nothing alike

Now if Remedy were suing Kojima for OD i might understand...
remedy_new_logo.jpg
ZAiwF2tKZGyEt3tDAm2tJ6-1200-80.jpg

because that is the same execution and intention behind the design
 
@Tall Valley Nerd

Mac and Donald are from the words Mac/Mach and Domhain/Domhnaill. These are words (and names) common to both Scotland and Ireland, since Scots Gaelic and the Irish language are very very closely related. While I can't speak Scots Gaelic, I can understand it if someone speaks it to me purely from my experience with the Irish language.

I used Irish as my example because this case was heard by an EU court over a company in Ireland (Supermac's), where McDonald's lost the exclusive trademark to "Big Mac".
 
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The two logos don't even look similar. There is a star in the Rockstar one, the colour is different, and the R itself has a different stroke contrast (thin vs. Thick stem) and the serifness is vastly different as well. They seem to be essentially trying to claim the rights to the letter R from my view.
 
It's a bit of a long shot, but maybe they're doing it to avoid paying taxes? One company gets to go "See guys, we suffered losses," other company gets paid and the money somehow changes hands.

Like, there's no way Take-Two are this stupid, right? Especially with a company you have a working relationship with?
 
lattjeful said:
It's a bit of a long shot, but maybe they're doing it to avoid paying taxes? One company gets to go "See guys, we suffered losses," other company gets paid and the money somehow changes hands.

Like, there's no way Take-Two are this stupid, right? Especially with a company you have a working relationship with?
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That would be incredibly illegal so, calling that a long shot is underselling it a bit.
 
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"There was something disturbingly familiar about the note on the desk. The handwriting was all pretty curves."

"Your logo is a rip-off."

"The truth was a burning green crack through my brain. Led by the letter R, the 26 children of Shakespeare grinned at me like hungry hyenas in a vicious mockery of my predicament."

"My logo was a rip-off. Funny as Hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of."
 
Cucufate said:


"There was something disturbingly familiar about the note on the desk. The handwriting was all pretty curves."

"Your logo is a rip-off."

"The truth was a burning green crack through my brain. Led by the letter R, the 26 children of Shakespeare grinned at me like hungry hyenas in a vicious mockery of my predicament."

"My logo was a rip-off. Funny as Hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of."
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Holy shit 😂
 
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Concernt said:
@Tall Valley Nerd

Mac and Donald are from the words Mac/Mach and Domhain/Domhnaill. These are words (and names) common to both Scotland and Ireland, since Scots Gaelic and the Irish language are very very closely related. While I can't speak Scots Gaelic, I can understand it if someone speaks it to me purely from my experience with the Irish language.

I used Irish as my example because this case was heard by an EU court over a company in Ireland (Supermac's), where McDonald's lost the exclusive trademark to "Big Mac".
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yeah someone told me mac mean son of in scottish like the word ibn in arabic so i was confused when you said it was from irish
sorry if my question annoy you and thanks for the answer
 
I agree with Rockstar on this, and not because I think they can win or have a case, but because Remedy's logo makes my brain dizzy.... Cannot explain, so I'd like them to change it.
 
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Why are the remakes in jeopardy? This dispute is previous to the announcement of said remakes, it is just that we, the normal people, didn't know. But of course they knew it, and still they talk publicly about the remakes during last year.
 
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goldrogerii said:
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Not suprised, trademark enforcement is one of those things that is required, otherwise Take Two risks losing the trademark (this is what makes trademarks different from copyright - copyright is to protect what is unique, trademarks are to protect what isn't unique but should be kept unique to prevent confusion).

Take Two probably just wanted it on record that they're still enforcing the trademark and Remedy is sufficiently large enough that the fees of retaining a lawyer make it feasible for them.

Trademark law is still utterly screwed up though, Monster Energy for example is the reason Pokemon is named that way outside Japan as opposed to just being named Pocket Monsters. And lets we forget the time King attempted to enforce a trademark on games using the word Candy.
 
This would have been pretty silly had Take-Two actually been trying to do this. The logo's aren't even that similar.

Razgriz said:
Trademark law is still utterly screwed up though, Monster Energy for example is the reason Pokemon is named that way outside Japan as opposed to just being named Pocket Monsters. And lets we forget the time King attempted to enforce a trademark on games using the word Candy.
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That would be pretty strange considering Monster Energy was first released in 2002. At most I've read that they've tried frivolously suing over the name in Japan. The actual trademark dispute would have been with Monster in My Pocket, an American toy line form the early 90's.
 
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Tab said:
This would have been pretty silly had Take-Two actually been trying to do this. The logo's aren't even that similar.


That would be pretty strange considering Monster Energy was first released in 2002. At most I've read that they've tried frivolously suing over the name in Japan. The actual trademark dispute would have been with Monster in My Pocket, an American toy line form the early 90's.
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Ah nevermind, you're correct. They've been filing lawsuits in Japan. Probably will get thrown out regardless but it still shows how awful trademarks are.
 
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