Game companies that have produced great games in the global game market have announced a legal battle because of the ‘R’ in their logo.
The protagonists of the legal battle are Rockstar Games of the ‘GTA’ series and Remedy Entertainment of ‘Max Payne’ and ‘Alan Wake’. There are signs that a full-scale battle is about to begin as Rockstar Games’ parent company raises objections to the logo that Remedy Entertainment unveiled last year.
Remedy Entertainment unveiled its new logo last April. According to the website description, the logo that has been used for over 20 years since its founding symbolized the era of Max Payne, but as time passed, the need for a new logo arose.
Now that the company has grown and deals with a variety of games, it has unveiled a new logo that looks like an overlapping R to signify the current and future vision of Remedy Entertainment. Afterwards, Remedy continued to apply for trademarks in the EU, UK, and US.
However, Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, immediately filed trademark objections in each region. Although there was no other mention in the objection application, they indirectly claimed that the ‘R’ was the problem by submitting the logo of their subsidiary, Rockstar Games, as evidence.
The issue is still in the period of agreement to resolve the dispute. It is highly likely that a full-scale legal battle will take place next year. Looking at the actual logo, there are no similarities other than the R in the center, but the industry’s analysis is that the dispute arose due to the history of the two companies.
The copyright related to Max Payne, built by Remedy Entertainment, is currently owned by Take-Two Interactive. Afterwards, Rockstar Games introduced ‘Max Payne 3’ and there was no news for a while, but recently Remedy Entertainment announced that it is working with Rockstar Games to remake the first and second games.
The Max Payne remake was produced by Remedy Entertainment. However, the investment was handled by Rockstar Games, and the publishing and distribution rights were also owned by Rockstar Games. Rockstar Games also holds the right to royalties after the break-even point.
Since the two companies are continuing to cooperate, there are many opinions expressing even more question marks about this dispute. As the release date of the Max Payne remake approaches, Take-Two Interactive appears to have raised an objection due to concerns that users will confuse the two companies’ logos, but it is unknown whether the objection will actually be accepted in each region.
