Bethesda has been known to participate in many legal battles for issues regarding trademarks. Not so long ago, they had fought with Mojang for using the name “Scrolls” for their new card game. As Prey had been released earlier this month, Bethesda have found another legal matter to fuss about.
Most people did not like the fact that Bethesda had trademarked the word “Prey”, as it is a common word in most cases and could be used by anyone. No Matter Studios’ Prey to the Gods triggered the issue, Bethesda is strictly forbidding any business to use the word “Prey” in their products. naturally the move garnered a lot of hate on Twitter and other social media.
Most fans were quick to point out CD Projekt Red’s take on the issue as they had also recently trademarked a name for themselves. CDPR, after trademarking “Cyberpunk”, released a statement saying that they would not deny or discourage anyone else to use the term.
Here is What Pete Hines of Bethesda had to say on the matter :
We really didn’t have much of a choice. If we don’t oppose the mark, we risk losing our Prey trademark. We don't really have a choice.
— Pete Hines (@DCDeacon)
To which someone replied:
Oh please, CD PROJEKT already explained how this works, you clearly went overboard on this one : https://t.co/mmo8XLwelr
— Le Tyran (@SleepyTyrant)
To which Pete further went on to say
I'm not a lawyer and don't work in trademark law. My understanding is cursory at best. I'm passing along what was explained to me
— Pete Hines (@DCDeacon)
There are various other tweets circulating around bashing Bethesda and it’s approach on it’s trademarks. The result of this heavy accusation from them was that No Matter Studios changed the name of their game to “Praey to the Gods”. However many within the gaming community are viewing this as an instance when a bigger developer forced the issue and made the smaller dev abide by their modicum of understanding. In any case this looks like an issue that will likely garner Bethesda some bad publicity
Let us know what you think about these strict policies regarding trademarks, and whether you support the actions that have taken in this instance to protect intellectual properties, by commenting in the comments section below!
