UPDATE: As reported by Eurogamer, It Takes Two developer Hazelight was in-fact the party that abandoned its trademark. Although the studio said it is “hopeful it will be resolved”.
An abandoned trademark dispute from Take-Two Interactive has come to light that saw the publisher file against Hazelight Studios over its co-op title It Takes Two.
The owner of Rockstar Games has filed hundreds of trademark disputes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office over words and phrases like “2K”, “Rockstar” and “Take-Two”.
This included the publisher attempting to file a trademark dispute over It Takes Two with Hazelight Studios. After being published in May of last year, the trademark was abandoned on by Hazelight.
According to the filing: “The owner of the trademark application withdrew (e.g. abandoned) the application and the application is no longer active.”
A more recent and open trademark filing from Take-Two concerns Max Pain, a business which according to opencorporates.com promotes Twitch streamers, Youtube content creators and Esports teams. Max Pain was given an incorporation date (the date it can commence business) of June 29 2020.
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Whilst the US Patent and trademark office doesn’t appear to list what this specific trademark is over from Take-Two, it appears as though the publisher is filing in connection to Max Payne, the series developed by Rockstar. The trademark dispute has been extended, and appears to be ongoing.
Elsewhere, Take-Two has been going after reverse-engineering projects of classic Grand Theft Auto titles that the publisher deemed to be copyright infringement. Now the modders behind those projects have defended their work as being encompassed by “fair use”.
In other news, the delayed release of the Steam Deck has given the Terraria developers extra time to improve the title. It also looks like the PS Plus games for December have been prematurely revealed by the German PlayStation Twitter account, with an official announcement likely to come later today.