Destiny Developer Trademarks 'DestinyCon'
By Weston Albert 02 February 2017
Destiny‘s developer, Bungie, registers a trademark for the term DestinyCon, making some believe that a Bungie and Activision-sponsored convention could be coming in the future.
Conventions and expos centered around specific games or developers are nothing new. Blizzcon is a yearly event that draws many fans to see the latest from Blizzard, and Activision hosts a Call of Duty XP event to show off that IP. But a new trademark filing has some believing that a Call of Duty XP type event could be taking place for another of Activision’s big IPs, Destiny.
Earlier this week, Bungie filed a trademark for the term DestinyCon with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. According to DualShockers, it was filed under classification 41, specifically denoting “fan conventions […] in connection with the game ‘Destiny.’” While this does give Bungie the ownership of the term, it does not necessarily mean that a Destiny convention is in the works. It was filed as “intent-to-use,” which means Bungie would have to actually use the term DestinyCon within two and a half years in order to keep the trademark.
The discovery of the trademark instantly sparked discussion among Destiny fans because a fan-organized Destiny convention currently already exists. Streamers Kevin Murray, Professor Broman, and King Gothalion first created that event last year, which was known as Destiny Community Con. Even last year, the group of organizers were careful not to call the event DestinyCon for the very reason that it could be infringement on Bungie’s ownership rights of Destiny. Immediately following last year’s event, the fan convention was rebranded as GuardianCon, and this year’s fan expo is set for June 30 in Tampa, Florida.
Some fans were worried that the trademark may be a threat to GuardianCon or a hint of an additional event that could take place on the West Coast. But both Professor Broman and Gothalion were quick to take to Twitter to quell the controversy, speculating that it’s likely a move by Bungie to protect the term for the future and to avoid any confusion if the developer were ever to choose to have such an event.
Last year at first. This allows them to protect their IP from any future confusion regarding events. 2/2
— ProfessorBroman (@Professorbroman) January 31, 2017
host the celebration themselves. I believe that this is IP protection to eliminate future confusion. Let's everyone cam down
