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.

Source

 

[BlastedGuy9905]

What a joke.

 

[WaffleRaccoon]

The next thing you know, something with the word Epic is going to be sued.

 

[Kioku]

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

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

 

[x65943]

Honestly tho it's one letter off, not a ridiculous lawsuit

Imagine if there was Intendo or Laystation

(Why do those sound oddly suggestive...)

 

[Deleted member 512337]

Ah yes Nreal engine

 

[Chary]

Honestly tho it's one letter off,

The PopStation says hello

 

[Kioku]

Honestly tho it's one letter off, not a ridiculous lawsuit

Imagine if there was Intendo or Laystation

(Why do those sound oddly suggestive...)

It's pretty ridiculous. Does the logo look the Unreal Engine logo? Where's the confusion? Why this company? Is Epic looking to release "Unreal VR"? It's a ridiculous lawsuit.

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

America: where you get sued for the stupidest shit

 

[Aheago]

Honestly tho it's one letter off, not a ridiculous lawsuit

Imagine if there was Intendo or Laystation

(Why do those sound oddly suggestive...)

If you read or even say nreal as unreal maybe you have other problems

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

America: where you get sued for the stupidest shit

It may be dumb, but how else are we supposed to make a living when companies pay us slave wages and treat us like shit for pennies?

 

[Mama Looigi]

Hahhhhh that’s not gonna look good to VR enthusiasts. As you might expect, the VR and AR communities are practically merged together. They all support Nreal. And the only reason the majority accepted Epic in the first place was because of Unreal Engine

 

[Wavy]

Wait am I on The Onion?

 

[MaxToTheMax]

Epix is next.

 

[Deleted member 471305]

The 1990 Amiga game Unreal is shaking in its boots right now.

 

[banjo2]

Can't wait for them to sue Disney

 

[Veho]

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.

 

[banjo2]

You know, this lawsuit is ridiculous. Some might even say that it's unreal.

 

[Deleted User]

This seems like a United States problem and I don't have local legal knowledge to weigh in on the success rate.

That said, the argument for such cases lie in the fact that, even if one's Company starts off trying to piggyback a famous Brand, there might be a time when said Company will want to differentiate themselves from said famous Brand, hence this will all backfire.

That is if they're a serious Company in it for the long haul.

So as much as I'd like to point out that Unreal is an actual English word, both in British and American variants, this feels like something that Nreal would want to differentiate from as soon as possible.

Maybe make Commercial Ads that show pronunciation differences.
Hnnnngreal should suffice ...

 

[Seliph]

How's that free market going

 

[Prans]

Wait till you hear Epic suing Epic (or vice versa)