Epic is suing VR/AR company Nreal because their name sounds too much like Unreal

epic-games-logo.jpg

Epic Games is no stranger to legal battles, especially as of late. Currently, they're in the midst of a drawn-out fight against Apple, but now they're beginning another court case against another company: Nreal. We've covered Nreal's various products in the past, which range from mixed reality headsets, to smart glasses; the company is one that dabbles in virtual and augmented reality technology, not typically gaming, but that hasn't stopped them from catching Epic Games' attention. Epic posits that Nreal both looks and sounds too similar to their own Unreal Engine, to the point that they're suing Nreal over "willfully trading off Epic’s rights, causing confusion, and acting with callous disregard for Epic’s prior rights", and making a profit by "confusing consumers" with the name.

The lawsuit, which was filed last week, aims to prevent Nreal from obtaining a trademark in the United States. It also appears to be seeking compensation from Nreal for multiple forms of damages and the reimbursement of Epic's legal costs. According to the legal papers, this has been an ongoing issue for years; Nreal attempted to obtain a trademark for its name in 2018, to which Epic Games opposed their application. With the American launch of Nreal's products quickly approaching according to a recent teaser made on the company's Twitter, and reportedly no attempt from them to discuss the problem outside of court, Epic has decided to move forward with the lawsuit.

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sloppycrap

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Remember kids. Epic cares about healthy competition. Unless it's against them. :rofl2:

This is absolutely petty. Nreal... Unreal... Fuck off Sweeney. :gba:

Remember kids: Video games are Big Business. If you're buying games for your Microsoft/Nintendo/Sony/Apple/Google etc. console, or from Steam/Epic/Uplay/Origin/Apple Store/Google Play/etc., you are feeding the machine. Epic is worse than the others in some ways, better in other ways. Stop feeding the machine.
 

Taleweaver

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Good damnit. I fucking loved unreal. It was absolutely a great game and a high mark in fps history.

But can we please age with a bit of fucking grace here, Sweeny? Nobody is going to confuse your world renowned engine with a company nobody even knew about. Their logo is different. Their product is different. They are fucking different.
They're not mooching of your mojo... They just want to have a cool name, that's all. You wouldn't have liked it when someone else came nagging that you aren't the first 'epic' company, so don't be an ass about when others pick a common and imaginative word. You own an engine. Not fucking entries of the dictionary. :angry:
 
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Purple_Heart

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even if...they shouldnt be allowed to sue em even if they are named unreal.....i mean unreal is a word nothing which should be able to get copyrighted

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fuck epic really normally i wouldnt say such things but that company is motherf***** cringe ass.
 

Taleweaver

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The thing is, if Epic chose not to sue, a claim could be made they weren't protecting their "Unreal" trademark, and they could lose it altogether. Unreal is a common word and pretty hard to justify owning a trademark on it, so they have to defend it all the more aggressively. They have to sue other companies in the same line of business whose trademarks sound anywhere close to "unreal", and even outside it. Remember when Apple sued all those grocery stores? Yeah. It wasn't because organic apples were a competition to their phones.

Trademark law states that a trademark can't be granted if it "so resembles another registered trademark, or a mark or trade name previously used by another and not abandoned, as to be likely to cause confusion when applied to the applicant's goods or services" and Epic (yet another dubious trademark) not countering the trademark application could be argued to be a case of abandoning their own trademark. Unreal/Nreal sound similar enough to where they have to do this.

This is all standard legal procedure.
Interesting. I'm not sure if this is circular reasoning or a catch - 22,but neither make procedure less bullshit. If they need to sue others for sake of proving the trademark holds up, then it has no value otherwise.
But unreal engine (or the game if you're an awesome retro gamer like me B-)) has value. Very much so, in fact. So no, a competitor (on the name front... They're not competing on the same field of interest) isn't going to lead to abandonment of the unreal brand. Assuming that's their explanation, it's a pathetic excuse, nothing more.


(this isn't personal, BTW. I get that you're playing devil's advocate here :))
 

gudenau

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The United States of America. Where the only job that you can keep for extended periods of time is either CEO to a multi-billion dollar company or a lawyer because people can sue over anything.

The only winners with this will be the lawyers.
 

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