What Taylor Swift can teach us about CD Projekt Red trademarking "Cyberpunk" | Scholarly Gamers

Matt Ferguson of ScholarlyGamers writes "I’m a huge fan of CD Projekt Red and I don’t personally believe that they are going to use this trademark to systematically go after developers, a la Taylor Swift circa 2015, but the comparison serves to show just how easy it can be for a brand to get wrapped up in these types of legal battles."

[GOODKylePS]

I believe in CD Projekt Red for now. We'll see how they handle things if they get the trademark in America or not.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Agreed

I think people need to realize that a lot of this lies on if they even get the trademark in the United States in the first place because it's an existing term that they did not invent.

If anything I think they're going to have it in limited ability.

[DVAcme]

"Cyberpunk" cannot be trademarked. "Cyberpunk 20XX" can. The first is a genre of fiction, the second is a particular work within that genre of fiction. In any case, it's not CDPR's property to trademark anyway, R. Talsorian Games, the creators of the original pen-and-paper RPG, are the ones who own the IP, while CDPR owns the license. Same casw with The Witcher. The Witcher as a game is CDPR's trademark. The Witcher as an IP belongs to Andrzej Sapkowski.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Yes, agreed.

Good info, didn't know that.

[The_Scholarly_Gamer]

Actually, they can trademark the word, and it's a legally messy grey area. What they cannot do is copyright the word.

[Goldby]

and what happens when they make a sequel like cyberpunk 2078, are they goign to have to trademark each game seperately, or branch it under Cyberpunk. what it the sequel is simply cyberpunk 2?

[_-EDMIX-_]

Probably

they're going to have to claim a series of trademarks or copyright simultaneously as many companies have actually been known to do that.

Consider when the entire leak of Destiny came out it was shown that they trademarked numerous titles. ie we already knew there was going to be several Destiny Games because of that leak and because of them registering for it simply because they do not own the trademark to the word destiny, they did not invent it, so the copyright and trademark had to be done a specific way very specific to the actual game Destiny which actually caused the reveal of multiple sequels.

[Acutejungle66]

CyberPunk has been trademarked since 1995, originally by R. Talsorian Games. CDPR 'acquired' the TM in 2011 and have owned it ever since (in the U.S.). This recent filing was done specifically for Europe, as even so the original TM was for 'International Protection', it does not mean it HAS to be observed in Europe. Law is messy, especially at an international level! Keep in mind, the TM applies specifically to 'Title Protection' in regards to games; and does not stop the word being used to describe the genre.
Back to the article though, good read sir; keep up the good work!

[XXanderXX]

Am on CD Project side of these matters , which sounds very reasonable.

[Discobastrd]

Can someone please teach Taylor Swift to Fckoff?

[XXanderXX]

I don't blame her , I blame American Idol for her . If that show had not exist we would never heard or seen any of those people ever .

[Discobastrd]

hahaha! :)
I guess that's the same as XFactor in the UK. Cultural dumbing at its finest...