I've been working with trademarks recently and thought what the heck I'll look up Descent. This is what I found....
Word Mark DESCENT
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer programs for video games and computer games and instruction manuals sold as a unit with the games, and computer programs for video games and computer games which may be downloaded from a global computer network. FIRST USE: 19941222. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19941222
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 77358976
Filing Date December 24, 2007
Owner (REGISTRANT) INTERPLAY ENTERTAINMENT CORP CORPORATION DELAWARE 100 North crescent drive suite 324 beverly hills CALIFORNIA 90210
The filing date is well after the series was out so Interplay must have something in mind for us or they wouldn't have bought a trademark. They must have ebay to thank for the in-commerce rule since Interplay hasn't sold Descent for well over 3 years
Trademark law is iffy. Trademarks need not be registered to be effective, if you have sufficient evidence to prove brand dilution, and you are actively using the trademark. Since Interplay has licensed Descent for sale on GameTap and Good Old Games, they are actively using the trademark, and in my IANAL-opinion, would have standing to sue anyone exploiting their trademarked name.
You can say that again. It is a complete mess. I guess I should expect that with anything to do with government. If you want a really ugly example of abuse sponsored by government look here.
DCrazy wrote:Trademarks need not be registered to be effective
Yes but there is confusion there and that is why most big companies register them anyway.
DCrazy wrote:Since Interplay has licensed Descent for sale on GameTap and Good Old Games, they are actively using the trademark.
I wonder if they started doing this around 12-24-2007? That would explain them buying a trademark.
