Bethesderp At It Again

[Darkening Demise]

Apparently a indie game called Prey For the Gods is 'too similar' to Prey their upcoming crappy FPS reboot after years of hell trying to make a sequel to the original Prey. The indie devs changed the name....but......

 

https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/3/15534924/prey-for-the-gods-praey-for-the-gods-trademark-name-change

 

 

 

 

This of course isn't the first time the d-bags have attacked indie devs for moronic reasons.

https://www.polygon.com/2015/2/16/8046579/bethesda-hits-fortress-fallout-maker-with-legal-name-change-demand

[Sylandras]

Well, I'm actually gonna side with Bethesda on this one

 

"“If we don’t oppose the mark, we risk losing our Prey trademark and that isn’t acceptable,” said Hines. “Unfortunately, that’s how trademark law works.”

 

 If they let one company use a game with "Prey" in it, then eventually someone will abuse it and ruin Bethesda's name. Let one game (or even movie/book etc), use it, and suddenly you no longer have a valid trademark.

 

I dunno exactly how trademark laws work in the US, but from my understanding...if you don't go after the name in your trademark, then your trademark claim no longer becomes valid or it makes it a lot harder to go after people that actually abuse your name.

With that said, trademarking common words is kinda lame. But that is how I understand trademarks work in the US. It isn't so much Bethesda's fault, but the law itself.

[lordkabal26]

Actually that's NOT how trademark works... Prey for the Gods was in NO WAY violating the trademark that is held for Prey. It's not even fucking similar. I for one won't be buying Prey because I'm not going to support a company that bullies indie devs when there is no similarity involved. Any sane trademark lawyer would say the same thing. Hines is a damn idiot.

[winny257]

       

Prey For the Gods: Bethesda forbids the use of "Prey" in the game name

 

Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax have forbidden the three-man indie developer team No Matter Studios to use the term "Prey" in their kickstarter game project "Prey for the Gods", referring to the copyright of the "Prey" brand. The case was taken up by a user in the NeoGAF Forum. Previously, the studio had already informed in a newsletter that because of the impending legal dispute, the name of the game in "Praey for the Gods" had to be changed. It was true that they had refused to defend themselves against it, but they had come to the decision not to waste the kickstarter money for court costs or, in the worst case, to remain seated in a defeat and no longer have financial resources for game development. Thus one is unhappy about the forced change of name, but on the other hand is glad about the possibility of further developing the game.

 

 

http://www.4players.de/4players.php/spielinfonews/Allgemein/37198/2167067/Praey_for_the_Gods-Bethesda_untersagt_Verwendung_von_Prey_im_Spielenamen.html

 

This is a joke, all complain about MEA, animations!
But the walk and run animations in PREY FOR THE GODS are much worse!     

 

[winny257]

Well, I'm actually gonna side with Bethesda on this one

 

"“If we don’t oppose the mark, we risk losing our Prey trademark and that isn’t acceptable,” said Hines. “Unfortunately, that’s how trademark law works.”

 

 If they let one company use a game with "Prey" in it, then eventually someone will abuse it and ruin Bethesda's name. Let one game (or even movie/book etc), use it, and suddenly you no longer have a valid trademark.

 

I dunno exactly how trademark laws work in the US, but from my understanding...if you don't go after the name in your trademark, then your trademark claim no longer becomes valid or it makes it a lot harder to go after people that actually abuse your name.

With that said, trademarking common words is kinda lame. But that is how I understand trademarks work in the US. It isn't so much Bethesda's fault, but the law itself.

 

It is now called * Praey for the Gods * 

 

I do not care how these two games are called, I'll none of the two to buy. 

[Cynical Misanthrope]

First it was scrolls and now it's prey. Fuck you Bethesda.

[winny257]

This is Bethesda's Horror Game Prey!!! 

here gives it no haters, is yes Bethesda. 

 

 

And THIS is another, which also appears in 2017. 

 

[SensualLust]

Maybe this'll change your perspective. For Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt submitted a trademark for the word Cyberpunk, even though they say they are not going to aggressively go after companies for using it in the names for their games. They will eventually have to, because they risk losing that trademark. I am on the side of Bethesda here. As sad as it is, this what companies have to do to protect their Intellectual Property. Thats the fucked up copyright system for ya.

[FauxFurry]

Maybe this'll change your perspective. For Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt submitted a trademark for the word Cyberpunk, even though they say they are not going to aggressively go after companies for using it in the names for their games. They will eventually have to, because they risk losing that trademark. I am on the side of Bethesda here. As sad as it is, this what companies have to do to protect their Intellectual Property. Thats the fucked up copyright system for ya.

It is difficult to say which of these trademark disputes highlights why the Trademark laws need reformation though neither is a clearer case than that of Tim Langdell and his trademark for the word Edge which somewhat recently lapsed.

 

Perhaps single word titles should become automatically ineligible for Trademarks, necessitating the kooky titles that Japanese cartoon and TV shows often have attached to them to remove any probability that anyone will accidentally stumble upon the same word combination, at least not easily.

[FauxFurry]

       

Prey For the Gods: Bethesda forbids the use of "Prey" in the game name

 

Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax have forbidden the three-man indie developer team No Matter Studios to use the term "Prey" in their kickstarter game project "Prey for the Gods", referring to the copyright of the "Prey" brand. The case was taken up by a user in the NeoGAF Forum. Previously, the studio had already informed in a newsletter that because of the impending legal dispute, the name of the game in "Praey for the Gods" had to be changed. It was true that they had refused to defend themselves against it, but they had come to the decision not to waste the kickstarter money for court costs or, in the worst case, to remain seated in a defeat and no longer have financial resources for game development. Thus one is unhappy about the forced change of name, but on the other hand is glad about the possibility of further developing the game.

 

 

http://www.4players.de/4players.php/spielinfonews/Allgemein/37198/2167067/Praey_for_the_Gods-Bethesda_untersagt_Verwendung_von_Prey_im_Spielenamen.html

 

This is a joke, all complain about MEA, animations!

But the walk and run animations in PREY FOR THE GODS are much worse!     

 

One is an issue of wonky trademark laws while the other is an example of shoddy games craftsmanship. There is no need to draw any comparisons between these companies on this topic.

Prey For the Gods is an indie game rather than a triple-A developer with millions of dollars in their budget and over a decade of material resources and experience to draw from so comparisons to Mass Effect: Andromeda are not fair.

Any instance of Electronic Arts or any other gaming publisher or independent developer pursuing potential trademark and copyright violators as vigorously as Zenimax does would possibly be worth discussing in this thread.

[legacyslayer]

If you think about it.. Its not much different than trying to sell a "Fallout-Post Apocalyptic Cooking!" game, yeah the gameplay is completely different, but the name Fallout- sells.. Even with no similarities what-so-ever, they will sell copies for this simple fact.. Prey, while its not a big title name yet, in their eyes it has the same potential as Fallout. Just wait until bethesda makes a game called AND THE... Then we will all be paying them a dime a sentence 

[windpl]

Lets make crapy game and name it "sex", then trademark it and sue a fuck out of it.

Retarded, and that how beth harpies think.

[Bazinga]

When I read or hear "Prey for the Gods" I don't even vaguely think about the original "Prey".

Prey is just a normal English word for fucks sake. And within the context of a half sentence like that indie title it should be treated as such. Nice pun btw, prey vs pray.

And what I read about trademark laws from that one press announcement CDPR did because of the Cyberpunk shitstorm makes me think that Bethesda is full of shit here and would have had no chance in court with this bullshit demand.

 

I can understand why they forced the name change on the Fallout Fortress game though.

 

Still, assholes. Will hesitate at least 10 minutes longer before buying their next shitty broken sex roleplaying game. That's gonna show them, ha!