Trademarking ‘Cyberpunk’ doesn’t imply nobody aside from CD Projekt Red will probably be in a position use the world of their video games.
Over the previous few days, it got here to gentle that The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt Red had filed a trademark for the phrase “Cyberpunk” in Europe.
The hubbub was largely to a Reddit post the place followers shared issues the trademark registration, if profitable, will finish using the phrase in any context, comparable to different sport names. Though the follow of registering emblems of phrases pertaining to mental property is definitely not new, followers of the studio believed the transfer to be un-CD Projekt Red.
The studio has now responded on Twitter, explaining the rationale behind the registration, hoping to assuage a few of these issues.
“We want to protect our hard work and we don’t plan on using the trademark offensively – It’s a self-defence measure only,” wrote the developer, earlier than occurring to stipulate why the transfer was needed.
Basically, CD Projket Red needed to ensure nobody else will be capable of use the precise identify “CYBERPUNK” and naming scheme, comparable to “CYBERPUNK 2077” “CYBERPUNK 2078” and so forth. This was performed after the studio purchased the rights to different Cyberpunk emblems beforehand owned by the creator whose work the sport is predicated on.
“A trademark is not a copyright or patent – these are totally different rights and they should not be confused,” CD Projket Red wrote. Owning this trademark doesn’t prohibit all makes use of of the phrase, in response to the developer, solely its business use.
The extra attention-grabbing level right here, and the rationale why folks have been up in arms on Reddit, is that this registration has the potential to forestall different video games from having the phrase “cyberpunk” of their titles. CD Projekt Red says this could solely be an issue when there’s a threat of client confusion, however it doesn’t lengthen to utilizing it as a descriptive time period.
“The role of the trademark is only to protect words, signs used as titles of games, names of products etc,” the assertion reads.
“If somebody names their sport ‘John Smith: Adventures in a Cyberpunk Soctiy’ or ’20 quick video video games set in cyberpunk worlds’ none of them needs to be handled as infringement of our rights.
This is as a result of, regardless of being a part of the title, there is no such thing as a threat that customers would affiliate these video games with CD Projket.”
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