In case you missed the news, No Matter Studios’ Kickstarted title Prey for the Gods has undergone a name change and is now called “Praey” for the Gods following a trademark opposition from Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax. The issue stems from ZeniMax owning the Prey trademark and feeling that No Matter’s original choice of title would cause issues for the company in the future.
Many contacted Bethesda’s Pete Hines on Twitter and voiced their concerns over the development, in response to which he said that ZeniMax had contacted No Matter Studios in 2015 to warn them of potential implications but ZeniMax’s letter was ignored. He said that neither companies are responsible for how trademark laws work and that there have been countless times when ZeniMax’s own studios had to change game titles to accommodate the same laws that No Matter Studios is now having to comply with.
Hines also reiterated Bethesda’s intention to turn Prey into a franchise, which means that the word “Prey” is likely to be used in various titles going forward, potentially causing clashes.
We reached out in Nov 2015. We tried talking to them. Well before their Kickstarter. And they could have used a name that didn’t infringe on our mark like we have 1,000 times when we came up with something another company marked. I’m not a trademark lawyer. Or any kind of lawyer. They disagree. Doesn’t matter what I think about any of this.
Interestingly, Hines questioned why No Matter Studios brought the issue up at the time of Prey‘s release, especially since the studio has been aware of the trademark issue since as far back as 2015.
What do our readers think of this?
[Source: Pete Hines (Twitter)]
