Collectible card game giant Wizards of the Coast has reportedly filed a trademark infringement claim against Sunstone Games, the studio behind the recent Kaiju Combat Kickstarter.
According to a forum post from Sunstone's Simon Strange, Wizards of the Coast claims that Sunstone is infringing of its trademark of the word "Kaijudo," a card game for which Wizards has also secured video game rights.
Strange responded to the claims, stating, "'Kaiju' is an ordinary word, being used in its ordinary context. The copyright of 'Kaijudo' cannot extend to the word 'Kaiju.'"
Although the original Kaiju Combat Kickstarter failed to achieve its pledge target, a second attempt saw Sunstone successfully passing its $100,000 target.
However, the Kickstarter page is now inaccessible, with the website noting that the game "is the subject of an intellectual property dispute and is currently unavailable."
Agreed. Kaiju describes an entire genre of film. Going after someone else with the name "Kaiju" in their game is ridiculous (though I'm a bit biased, because my game has it in there! ruh-roh!)
When I saw the headline I expected something reasonable, like Godzilla owner suing them for featuring Godzilla, I would be unhappy with it, but would find it reasonable.
Now... Wizards of the Coast suing for the word Kaiju?
At least, it does not surprise me (TSR was nicknamed T$R by fans when they started to sue any random game master out there for whatever reason, and WotC still is annoying with that, not allowing for example game masters create public campaigns if they have beholders in them for example...)
Maurico -=> Whoa they are really behaving that way? Didn't know that. Doesn't exactly sound like a great way to connect with your fan base. It's also a bit of a sad joke because of the massive number of monsters in the monster manuals were influenced, taken or adapted by other fictional works.
WotC youdo not own the property of a freaking genre of film and neither anyone would confuse a game about said genre with a tabletop cardgame that in itself is a pastiche of pokemon and yu-ghi-oh.
Which just adds to the absurdity of this entire ordeal.
Now... Wizards of the Coast suing for the word Kaiju?
At least, it does not surprise me (TSR was nicknamed T$R by fans when they started to sue any random game master out there for whatever reason, and WotC still is annoying with that, not allowing for example game masters create public campaigns if they have beholders in them for example...)
Which just adds to the absurdity of this entire ordeal.