Square Enix has filed a trademark for something called "Sleeping Dogs," and online speculation is pointing toward it being related to a new Kane & Lynch game. It's still quite obviously a rumor, but the arguments are compelling.

A poster on NeoGAF recently made the connection between Sleeping Dogs and the Kane & Lynch series, which had its last installment named "Dog Days." The series was developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos, whose parent company is Square Enix. IO Interactive has been busy working on its latest Hitman game, but another forum member pointed to an earlier job posting within the studio. In its search for a senior multiplayer programmer, IO said of its latest tech "The multiplayer technology lays the foundation for a yet unannounced 3rd person game with strong cooperative multiplayer elements."

The Kane & Lynch series hasn't had the best run, but Eidos seems to still think it has a few more miles in it. Speaking to Eurogamer about a year ago, the company's life president Ian Livingstone said we probably haven't seen the last of the duo. "We haven't made any announcements about Kane & Lynch going forward, but we all know that Kane and Lynch are two amazing characters who have a lot of brand equity. People like those guys, so they're not going to disappear."

Are you ready to see more of these guys? Do you think Sleeping Dogs even has anything to do with Kane & Lynch?

[Via NeoGAF]