Take-Two Interactive hits indie game It Takes Two with trademark claim

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Josef Fares' co-op indie title It Takes Two was forced to abandon its trademark after a claim by Take-Two Interactive, according to documents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Take-Two filed the claim on October 26, 2020, and developer Hazelight Studios abandoned its trademark on March 30, 2021, four days after the game's launch. In a statement to Eurogamer, Hazelight acknowledged it had to abandon the trademark due to Take-Two's claim, said it remained hopeful the "ongoing disputes" could be resolved, but did not comment on how it affected the game's performance, or any plans to change the name for a sequel or future release.

Other documents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office show Take-Two has an extensive history of filing claims like this, not just for the name Take-Two, but for anything even close to their subsidiaries or brands, including trademarks containing the words rockstar, social club, or bully. Examples include clothing brand Max Fayne, retailer Project 1920 for its slogan "Don't Be a Rockstar, Be a Legend" (which appears to be based on a quote attributed to Freddie Mercury), artist and holistic healer Jennifer Charton for her company Goddess Rockstar Arts, and business consultation firm Restaurant Rockstars LLC. There's even a claim against Obschestvo s ogranichennoy otvetstvennostyu "AytiReks Grupp Bel" for its logo, which is infringing on the Rockstar logo of a simple R. The offending logo can be seen below on the left, next to Rockstar's logo for comparison on the right.

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Earlier this year, Take-Two also took legal action against the GTA fan community for several mods, including the popular reverse-engineering projects.

:arrow: Source
 

Spider_Man

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This is why Take Two has such a good image with gamers.
Yes the sheep help fund this empire buy buying the multiple ports of gta5 and now the lazy shit gta definitely ain't remastered trilogy.

I hate companies like this, focus more on how and who they can take legal action against, rather than focus on making new games, bit like nintendo.

No wonder that washed up drug fiend tried to sue them for her so called likeness used in gta 5, if they can take others to court for shit that has no resemblance to them at all.
 
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Esdeath

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Now they are suing you for using the word "bully".
that's why schools go only after you when you said "that kid bullied me I just defended myself"

For real though, as long as take-two doesn't patent the fucking alphabet and basic words of the dictionay, I don't see how any reasonable court would say "Ay fam, you are absolutely right, to jail with those who dare use a R in their Logo or have something resembling your name in the title beside making totally sense"
 

FAST6191

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Here I thought the Scrolls vs Elder Scrolls thing a few years back was dubious and as far as that was going to go. Guess this is their "hold my beer" moment and I was wrong. If it was Marvin Gaye/the estate thereof for the classic song I could possibly see it (without having checked to see if there is such a trademark -- some musicians will with margaritaville probably being the more notable in recent times for lawsuits here).



i never imagined there would be a company worse then nintendo when it came to copyright, the thing is, they dont have to change shit, cause im pretty sure you cant copyright words like this
It is trademarks that is the aspect of law at play here. They are ostensibly for words and logos such that customers recognise the source company and don't get confused.
I will agree though that all I saw in the lists provided were extremely dubious.
 
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scoobydude51

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of course they would do this, It Takes Two is extremly popular, while being run by a indle studio (T2 would easily destory them if they win).
 

tech3475

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It's not that I don't hate Take-Two Interactive, but in this scenario, it's not really their fault. The US legal system requires Trademarks to be actively and litigiously defended from anything that could possibly be construed as similar.

I hate Take-Two as much as everyone else, but they're not the problem this time, the US is.

Was about to say this, the US legal system is also why we have things like "Adobe Photoshop (TM)" when Photoshop would suffice, because Adobe wants to avoid losing the trademark through generization.
 

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