Rockstar Games’ parent company, Take-Two Interactive, have filed a dispute over Remedy Entertainment’s latest logo. Despite Rockstar Games funding Remedy’s Max Payne Remake, there is contention over the “R” logo that Remedy is now using.
This is not the first time Remedy have come under threat for their logo. The design introduced by the company in 1996 was threatened with legal action by LucasArts for it looking similar to theirs.
Back in April last year, Remedy released a blog post showing their new company logo. It used be an R with a bullet inside it and a circle around the R but now it is just an R with the repeated a bit. Ironically, Remedy said this about the old logo “The bullet in the letter R in the old logo represented the era of Max Payne.”
Legal filings have been made
First spotted by @usemyhandle on Twitter (currently known as X), Take-Two Interactive have filed a trademark dispute over the new Remedy logo, with the Remedy text below it and without.
These trademark filings were made to the UK and EU Intellectual Property Office. On their pages it states Remedy filed this trademark in April and May 2023 but Take-Two “Opposed” it a few months later.
The EUIPO say “The pending trade mark application has been examined by the Office and was published for opposition, at which time one or more oppositions were filed but they have not yet been decided.”
Why Take-Two are going after it
According to the EUIPO filing, the reason given for Take-Two’s opposition is Remedy’s logo presents “there exists a likelihood of confusion on the part of the public”. This probably is in relation to the famous Rockstar Games logo.
Remedy released their first game under the new logo, Alan Wake 2, last year. It has garnered many game of the year awards and other accolades. At this moment in time, Rockstar Games are funding a remake of Max Payne 1 and 2. These are being developed by Remedy entirely.
We reported on Remedy’s announcement in October that the remakes were moving along in production and reached a significant milestone. It is no longer in a concept stage and is now getting ready for full development.
GTA creator has his say
The creator of Grand Theft Auto, Mike Dailly, took to Twitter (currently known as X) to say “At no point would I ever confuse this with Rockstar… proving once again what a bunch of c*** they are. Mike worked at DMA Design, the studio that made the original GTA game and he is credited as the series creator for making its prototype.
Mr Dailly has had issues with Rockstar Games and Take-Two in the past. We reported on how videos he posted of his Grand Theft Auto prototypes were hit with a copyright strike by the current owners of GTA.
Mike said at the time “I see Rockstar are going full f***ers mode again, issuing copyright strikes to any GTA video they can find – including both my prototype videos. So now they’re trying to block all release of anyone’s work on a game – and any old development footage.” In November 2023, Mr Dailly received the Lifetime Achievement as part of the Scottish Game Week awards.
UPDATE: 18th January
Eurogamer have received a statement from Remedy saying that “There is nothing to see here”. The company follow this up by explaining “This was a discussion between our teams that was resolved entirely and amicably late last year. Unfortunately, it took a little longer to complete than we had hoped due to some holiday scheduling. The legal filing was simply an initial formality, and Remedy and Take-Two continue to work together in partnership.” We’re glad to see this was resolved as it quickly spread like wildfire across social media.
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2 Comments
Well I’m actually insulted that R* believes that I could possibly get confused between a black and white logo and a yellow (sometimes blue) rounded square with a white star on it. Perhaps I might confused enough to spend my money on a company with a gold R logo.
I would have to be significantly drugged to willingly spend money towards the gold rounded square logo with an “R”