What to do if someone has stolen your game's name

[RyanC]

Hi all,

I'm looking to get a conversation going about copyright and intellectual property, and when to trademark your game or app name.

Over 12 months ago I purchased a domain name and claimed all the matching Twitter, Facbook url's for my new game.
I've recently noticed that this did not stop someone from viewing my pre-marketing content and then using the same name with modified social media addresses.
So now my game is almost ready and it's name has been ruined by a poor quality app that's been released on iOS by someone else!

I'm interested to see what precautions other developers are taking to prevent this kind of issue, as trademarking every game before it's making revenue can be very costly.

Any advice on what I should do from here would also be greatly appreciated.

 

[NazGhuL]

If money is involved, hire/consult a lawyer.

 

[sylvain_l]

not a lawyer, so take just what I say for what it is.

I believe, as long as you didn't register (a trademark, busines, domain) for the name, it's not yours. simple. (you can still claim some form of trademark ownership as for slogan, etc...; if you have been first to use it and the confusion that it lead the client; not going to be simple, nor cheap, and no garantee of success)

registering the domain name or the user name on some social network doesn't give you more right out of that scope (I mean even posing a tm near a slogan, doesn't garantee that you'll win in a court against an infringent that reused it. The only efficient registration is trademark).
In switzerland, I'm pretty sure, domain name and business registration are considered two different registration. You have to register both if you want to own both. Only the trademark registration as a wider scope.

Best way to protect name is registering the trademark.
(even a well known trademark like nike, they don't own the name in spain ! cause someone already registered it there.) my bad they get it back after 15 years of dispute

I mean, as registering my account on this forum as 'sylvain_l', don't give me any type of ownership over the name 'sylvain_l' everywhere in the world. IMHO claiming a world wide ownership on any name not trademarketed is doomed.

As you haven't trademark it, and also trademark are country based; and finally, android, windows or iOS are mostly IMHO different market (cause by default you can't run an android app on iOS) I have quite doubt of success of a claim.

That' only my thoughts on the subject.(I'm inclined to say, changing name going to be cheaper than trying to get the name back)

As NazGhul advise; consult a lawyer specialist on trademark !
to be honest I'm quite curious what a trademark lawyer would say^^

 

[Yal]

I'm also not a lawyer (seriously, wouldn't it be better if only people that were lawyers had to point their lawying status out? This is a game developer forum crissake) but this is what I'd do:

1. Report the devs for some sort of infringement on the iOS store and provide proof you used the name before they did, including showing screenshots of both your social media sites and pointing out how deceptive their stuff is.
2. Outfame them using your existing fanbase so nobody will find their stuff again no matter the result of step 1.

 

[RichHopefulComposer]

Trademark your game's name, lol.
Or try asking the guy to change his if you haven't yet. If you're lucky, he'll be cool about it.

 

[The-any-Key]

This happen in the film industry all the time.
When a big company is about to release a new movie. A smaller company make a cheap copy and release before it with a similar name and gain profit from the original PR.

 

[RyanC]

This happen in the film industry all the time.
When a big company is about to release a new movie. A smaller company make a cheap copy and release before it with a similar name and gain profit from the original PR.

My original PR was not very successful at all, mainly becuase the word "dragon" is 10/10 difficult to rank for on google.

 

[NazGhuL]

By "If money is involved, hire/consult a lawyer."
I really mean: Consult a lawyer.
You can have free advices.
Don't start a lawsuit against them!
(Of course, if you believe you can lose thousands of $..., it's more serious...)

 

[Yal]

My original PR was not very successful at all, mainly becuase the word "dragon" is 10/10 difficult to rank for on google.

Couldn't you switch it out for a more uncommon word that's slightly different, like 'Drake' or 'Vywern'? Always adds a little bit of flair, and archaic spellings adds medieval authenticity.


EDIT: "Drake" might not be the best choice since Nathan Drake is a thing, btw.

 

[RyanC]

Couldn't you switch it out for a more uncommon word that's slightly different, like 'Drake' or 'Vywern'? Always adds a little bit of flair, and archaic spellings adds medieval authenticity.


EDIT: "Drake" might not be the best choice since Nathan Drake is a thing, btw.

I'm considering changing the name, now that it's been damaged by the iOS game that someone clearly stole from me when they saw they had to use a modified user name on all social media sites.

 

[Yal]

One better idea than 'Drake', btw... how about Dragoon, and then you turn the two Os into an infinity sign? (maybe you could even have an subtitle along the lines of "the original infinite fun runner!" that implies your game was first and is better)

 

[RichHopefulComposer]

....What is your game's name?

 

[Genetix]

I don't much of the legal side either but the first thing I would do is reach out to them and essentially ask them to change it or work on a solution. Essentially a cease & desist.

 

[Dobsus]

Trademark law is fairly tricky and depending on where the person who 'stole' your name lives it could be difficult to enforce.

As @NazTaiL has already said CONSULT A LAWYER.

Additionally, there is a law in certain countries where even if a name isn't trademarked but has built a brand and you can prove people will associate it with your product then it can be treated as though you do have the rights to it. (Again, check with your country's specific laws and hence a lawyer)

Should you find the individual in question has actually violated any IP laws you will most likely want to look into filing a cease and desist.

On a final note, if this iOS release has truly damaged the reputation of the game you can not only file for damages but may also want to consider a new brand which wouldn't be tainted.

Good luck

 

[bml]

I'm not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. Also apologies if I sound a little harsh.

I see three reasonable choices:

1. Pick a new name
2. Release with your current name
3. Ask the other game to change their name

Here's the harsh part:

1. You have no legal standing. None of your actions have given you any sort of legal protection.
2. Your game's name is generic and several games have been released as 'Dragon Dash' including video games and a board game. There are five games called 'Dragon Dash' in the Play Store. Amazon has a game called 'Super Dragon Dash Hero'. Prefixing 'Super' doesn't make it unique and could be considered infringement. Think about making a game called 'Super Zelda'. 'Dragon Dash' is also trademarked by a toy/game company.
3. Stating someone stole from you could invite a lawsuit. Other than the name, I don't see anything to suggest anyone stole anything from you. I would argue that's there's nothing to even steal. It's not like there's valuable IP involved nor I can I see any way they profit from using that name.
4. They have the App Store name which gives them an advantage. There's some truth to the statement that possession is 9/10ths of the law.
5. There's no money here. It's not likely either game would make enough profit to cover trademark costs or a lawsuit. This is one reason I don't think legal action make much sense.
6. There's no damages and there's nothing to win. It will be impossible to prove any sort of damages and I don't see any evidence you could collect any compensation if you did. At best they change their name. But that doesn't prevent more games from using that name or a similar name.
7. Legal fights are expensive in both time and money. International ones even more. They are also painful, frustrating and often leave everyone unhappy.
8. Getting upset over this isn't productive. Find a way to move on as soon as you can.

General suggestions for indie game devs:

1. Longer and unique names are better.
2. Get your app store names asap.
3. Get your social media names asap.
4. If you're investing a lot of money or time, consider a trademark. I'm not a fan of this option. You would still need money and time to enforce it if it ever became an issue and in some places it won't make a difference.
5. Make great games. Everyone will forget the other games if your game is so much better.

There are probably other good suggestions out there.

BTW, I think your game looks great and I look forward to playing it.

You might be able to spin this into a positive by sharing your story for some press. It's an interesting, unique and personal story. I would drop any theft talk and speak to the other developer to get their side of the story.

 

[Jabbers]

I'm not sure it is true that RyanC has no legal claim to the name. To my understanding you have to use that name for your product to have any claim to it, and if someone takes your name and is competing with a similar product in the same market, then you should be able to legally challenge them.

Does taking a domain name and registering social media channels count? I'm not sure. If another guy released a product with the name before Ryan did, then it is possible they could even try to stop Ryan from using it. Unless Ryan did a whole load of marketing and it can be established that the other product has done damage to his product, he might have no case.

The effort and money involved in getting a lawyer and challenging some ty app would probably not be worth it.

 

[RyanC]

One better idea than 'Drake', btw... how about Dragoon, and then you turn the two Os into an infinity sign? (maybe you could even have an subtitle along the lines of "the original infinite fun runner!" that implies your game was first and is better)

That's pretty cool, I'm becoming increasingly interested in inventing new words to get something unique. My only concern with this is the marketing of the game because although this will be easier to rank for in terms of SEO, it will be harder to market when gamer's search for their type of game they're looking for, like "dragon games" or "dash games" etc.

 

[Yal]

Well, you can't both be unique and generic at the same time... you'll need to make up your mind about what's the most important for your branding.