Ubisoft's Ghost Recon vs. Ghost Games Trademark War
By Sarah Fields 26 January 2016
Ubisoft delivers a lawsuit against EA, accusing them of attempting to confuse gamers and steal their business by creating a logo that’s too similar to Ghost Recon‘s.
Every once in a while, one company will sue another because they claim said company has too closely copied their logo, name, or product. In this instance, Ubisoft is suing EA on the grounds that EA’s Ghost trademark is too similar to Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon logo.
According to Rosti, posting on Neogaf, Ubisoft filed an opposition to EA’s pending trademark on their Ghost logo in September of last year, but has now proceeded to file an official lawsuit. In the suit, Ubisoft claims that their Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon logo is being infringed upon by EA, whose Ghost logo is too similar to Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon logo.
In the suit, Ubisoft claims that potential customers and fans will be confused by EA’s Ghost logo, as it’s “nearly identical to the Ghost Recon marks used and owned by Opposers [Ubisoft].” In addition, Ubisoft also claims in their lawsuit that EA may have intentionally created a logo similar to their own in an effort to cause confusion or deceive customers.
In reality, there are very few similarities between the two logos, aside from the fact that they both incorporate the word ‘ghost’. First and foremost, the fonts are entirely different, with the Tom Clancy Ghost Recon font is much bolder than the other’s. Secondly, the EA Ghost logo includes a stylized image of a spooky ghost, which has nothing to do with the theme or story of the Ghost Recon tactical shooter games.
Perhaps the most important thing to consider here, however, is that EA’s Ghost logo isn’t even intended for a game. The logo is being used by Ghost Games, a European game development studio working under EA that has worked on the Need for Speed games. At the time of this writing, there appear to be no plans to release a game specifically entitled Ghost, and the logo is only being used by the development team.
It’s highly unlikely that gamers would find themselves confused between a development studio named Ghost with a stylized ghost picture and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, given the latter is extremely recognizable considering its status as both a long-running game series and novel. It remains to be seen if Ubisoft is successful with their lawsuit, but it wouldn’t be the first time a case like this has been thrown out or denied. The studio behind Candy Crush, King, has previously made a fool of itself by attempting to trademark the word ‘candy,’ and serving a lawsuit against the developers behind The Banner Saga for its logo supposedly posing a confusion risk to gamers.
Attempting to trademark common words or phrases like Let’s Play hasn’t ended well for other companies, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if this lawsuit ends the same way. Chances are, gamers won’t be confusing Ghost Recon and the EA Ghost Games developer anytime soon.
Source: Neogaf
