Interesting Descent information from the USPTO website.

ksweeley · Post by **ksweeley** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 2:25 am

I found this interesting Descent related info on the USPTO (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) website. Apparently Interplay applied for a Descent trademark for \"production and distribution of live action theatrical, motion pictures and television motion pictures and animated and live action television series.\" What was this for?

Link: http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regs ... y=75277732

Serial Number: 75277732

Mark (words only): DESCENT

Current Status: Abandoned: No Statement of Use filed after Notice of Allowance was issued.

Date of Status: 1999-11-13

Filing Date: 1997-04-21

LAST APPLICANT(S)/OWNER(S) OF RECORD
1. Interplay Productions

Address:
Interplay Productions
17922 Fitch Avenue
Irvine, CA 92714
United States
Legal Entity Type: Corporation
State or Country of Incorporation: California

GOODS AND/OR SERVICES

International Class: 041
entertainment services, namely, production and distribution of live action theatrical, motion pictures and television motion pictures and animated and live action television series featuring action, adventure and science fiction stories
First Use Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)
First Use in Commerce Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)

Basis: 1(b)

And according to this separate listing, Interplay cancelled the Descent trademark in 2002: http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regs ... y=74527218

Serial Number: 74527218

Registration Number: 1949638

Mark (words only): DESCENT

Standard Character claim: No

Current Status: Registration canceled under Section 8.

Date of Status: 2002-10-19

Filing Date: 1994-05-17

LAST APPLICANT(S)/OWNER(S) OF RECORD
1. Interplay Productions

Address:
Interplay Productions
17922 Fitch Avenue
Irvine, CA 92714
United States
Legal Entity Type: Corporation
State or Country of Incorporation: California

GOODS AND/OR SERVICES
International Class: 028
computer programs for video and computer games and instruction manuals sold as a unit with the programs
First Use Date: 1994-12-22
First Use in Commerce Date: 1994-12-22

Basis: 1(a)

Valin Halcyon · Post by **Valin Halcyon** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:28 am

I am...hmm... Shocked? Surprised? This is actually news to me, and it's years old!

So Interplay dropped Descent 100%. That means that the only remaining holder is Parallax(possibly Volition). Hmm...that means that good 'ol Matt/Mike could do up D4 on their own and publish through THQ perhaps. Very interesting.

ksweeley · Post by **ksweeley** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 10:59 am

What's the first listing for Descent for? Was a TV show or movie planned for Descent? What's the story behind that listing?

DarkShadow · Post by **DarkShadow** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 1:00 pm

As i remember their was a TV movie planned then they changed to a real movie then they didn't make it.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 1:39 pm

If they wrote D4 for the X-Box 360 they might even be able to sell it. I hear nearly anything can get some sales volume there.

ksweeley · Post by **ksweeley** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 6:30 pm

DarkShadow wrote:As i remember their was a TV movie planned then they changed to a real movie then they didn't make it.

Hmmmm... Interesting. I wonder why Interplay didn't make a Descent movie. Does anyone have more detailed information on this apparent Descent movie?

I do recall an Interplay press release that mentions the creation of the Interplay Films division that would make popular Interplay franchises into movies. One franchise that comes to mind for me is Redneck Rampage, I remember hearing that Columbia TriStar picked up movie rights to Redneck Rampage from Interplay Films but nothing more was announced about the Redneck Rampage movie.

RatoN · Post by **RatoN** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:16 pm

I remember this rumor flying around awhile ago. Even had a listing at IMDB.

ksweeley wrote:Hmmmm... Interesting. I wonder why Interplay didn't make a Descent movie. Does anyone have more detailed information on this apparent Descent movie?

Can't tell you. Back then I was more keen on the idea, but the trackrecord of the whole slew of movie games that came afterwards only makes me glad it never happened.

Suncho · Post by **Suncho** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:28 pm

Valin Halcyon wrote:I am...hmm... Shocked? Surprised? This is actually news to me, and it's years old!

So Interplay dropped Descent 100%. That means that the only remaining holder is Parallax(possibly Volition). Hmm...that means that good 'ol Matt/Mike could do up D4 on their own and publish through THQ perhaps. Very interesting.

No. Just because they've dropped their trademarks doesn't mean they don't have rights to some intellectual property. It also doesn't mean that they don't still have active contracts relating to the rights to Descent.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:55 am

Suncho wrote:
Valin Halcyon wrote:I am...hmm... Shocked? Surprised? This is actually news to me, and it's years old!

So Interplay dropped Descent 100%. That means that the only remaining holder is Parallax(possibly Volition). Hmm...that means that good 'ol Matt/Mike could do up D4 on their own and publish through THQ perhaps. Very interesting.
No. Just because they've dropped their trademarks doesn't mean they don't have rights to some intellectual property. It also doesn't mean that they don't still have active contracts relating to the rights to Descent.

Without legal documentation, isn't that like "vaporware"? This was copyrights to most stuff Descent related and was labled "Abandoned"

Suncho · Post by **Suncho** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 4:26 am

A trademark is just a catchy name for something. So you could use the name \"Descent\" to make a video game, but it couldn't use any ideas, content, code, media, gameplay... etc. derived from the original Descent series to make your game. So you couldn't have a guy flying around with a pyro in 6DOF doing missions for the PTMC, because all that stuff is covered in copyright.

The copyrights were never abandoned. Descent was never officially added to the public domain. Only the trademarks were abandoned. There is legal documentation to back up the copyrights. Go to the Library of Congress website. They have abstracts for all recent copyrights including the copyrights for Descent.

It's impossible to abandon a copyright. You can officially specify something you create to be part of the public domain, but if you do nothing, it remains copyrighted. You don't even have to register a copyright for it to be enforceable. As soon as creative work becomes public, it comes attached with an implied copyright.

Interplay and Parallax both have some say in anything Descent related. It's all very complicated and we don't know the details of their legal business arrangements. We therefore shouldn't assume that just because one thing is true, another thing must also be true.

Suncho · Post by **Suncho** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 4:34 am

ksweeley wrote: Hmmmm... Interesting. I wonder why Interplay didn't make a Descent movie. Does anyone have more detailed information on this apparent Descent movie?

Interplay started running into financial difficulties in 1999. Eventually they were acquired by Titus and then the whole shebang sank. If Descent 3 had sold better, we may have seen a Descent movie, but that's just conjecture.

ksweeley · Post by **ksweeley** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 5:41 am

And I'm guessing that if Descent 3 sold well, we would've seen Descent 4 go into full production. I remember Volition launch a Descent 4 site with preliminary information on Descent 4 and from what I recall, Volition had an agreement with Interplay for Interplay to publish Descent 4 if Descent 3 had good sales and when Descent 4 sold well, Outrage would've developed Descent 5. However, when Descent 3 didn't sell well, it seems like Volition then cancelled Descent 4 and put two of its elements into Red Faction, the main character of Parker and the Geo-Mod engine and Outrage cancelled its plans to develop Descent 5. It would've been interesting to have the Geo-Mod engine in a Descent game. Well, it seems like Interplay is trying to make a comeback, it somehow was able to survive the bankruptcy of Titus and is a separate company again with new headquarters in California. Interplay recently hired a new public accountant on February 15th, 2006 and in the SEC filing that reveals that Interplay has a new public accountant, it still shows that Herve Caen is still CEO and now Interim CFO of Interplay, all of Interplay's SEC filings can be found through a link on Interplay's re-launched official website: www.interplay.com .

Suncho · Post by **Suncho** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 8:55 am

ksweeley wrote:And I'm guessing that if Descent 3 sold well, we would've seen Descent 4 go into full production.

Maybe. I guess we'll never know.

ksweeley wrote:I remember Volition launch a Descent 4 site with preliminary information on Descent 4 and from what I recall, Volition had an agreement with Interplay for Interplay to publish Descent 4 if Descent 3 had good sales and when Descent 4 sold well, Outrage would've developed Descent 5. However, when Descent 3 didn't sell well, it seems like Volition then cancelled Descent 4 and put two of its elements into Red Faction, the main character of Parker and the Geo-Mod engine and Outrage cancelled its plans to develop Descent 5.

Volition did launch a Descent 4 website. I visited it every day for about a month. They would add new screenshots to it. Then one day, they renamed the site to Red Faction. If you remember the early Descent 4 pages, there was a lot of talk about getting out of your ship. Well Red Faction is just what the project evolved into. Volition was not forced to cancel Descent 4 based on anything Interplay did.

ksweeley wrote:It would've been interesting to have the Geo-Mod engine in a Descent game.

The Descent 3 engine supports an early form of geo-mod in terrain areas. It was never implemented in the game, but the functionality is there.

I, for one, think that geo-mod is a stupid idea, and I'd never like to see it in any Descent game.

ksweeley wrote:Well, it seems like Interplay is trying to make a comeback, it somehow was able to survive the bankruptcy of Titus and is a separate company again with new headquarters in California.

Actually, the guy running Interplay now is one of the founders of Titus. The Interplay of today is more like what Titus morphed into.

ksweeley wrote:Interplay recently hired a new public accountant on February 15th, 2006 and in the SEC filing that reveals that Interplay has a new public accountant, it still shows that Herve Caen is still CEO and now Interim CFO of Interplay, all of Interplay's SEC filings can be found through a link on Interplay's re-launched official website: www.interplay.com .

Yes. Herve Caen = Titus. If you want to read an interesting (albeit biased) article about him, go here:

http://www.itsuckstobejoe.com/interplay.asp

Valin Halcyon · Post by **Valin Halcyon** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 8:12 am

Oh well, pardon my hopefulness then.

Suncho · Post by **Suncho** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 8:39 am

Yeah sorry man. =/

Don't give up hope though. It's not a simple matter to get Descent back, but that doesn't mean it'll never happen. =)

ksweeley · Post by **ksweeley** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:20 am

Suncho wrote:Yeah sorry man. =/

Don't give up hope though. It's not a simple matter to get Descent back, but that doesn't mean it'll never happen. =)

I have a very faint hope that Descent can be revived. I had a lot of fun playing Descent 1, 2, and 3.

Interesting Descent information from the USPTO website.

Interesting Descent information from the USPTO website.

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