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New Battletoads Trademark Appears In United States Trademark Database
Update: We have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that, as we suspected, this trademark filing is real.
The bad news (though not unexpected) is that Microsoft isn't saying anything right now. "Microsoft often acquires various trademarks as part of its ongoing business strategy, but beyond that we have no comment,” a representative told us via email. That comment isn't what I would call Rare, though.
Original Story:
A trademark for the classic Rare franchise Battletoads has appeared in the United States Patent and Trademark database. According to the site, Microsoft filed for the trademark on November 5, 2014.
We compared this filing to other Microsoft game trademarks and noticed no significant discrepancies. The attorney attached to the filing, Grace Han Stanton, is an intellectual property lawyer in Washington.
Battletoads was a short-lived franchise that started on the Nintendo Entertainment system in 1991, before being ported to other systems, including the Sega Genesis and Nintendo Game Boy. Two additional home titles on 8-bit and 16-bit systems and an arcade game.
We've reached out to Microsoft for more information. We'll update should we receive a response.
[Source: USPTO via NeoGAF, Videogamer]
Our Take
There are a number of reasons to trademark something, and not all of them end in a finished game. Even if Battletoads is making a comeback, don't expect it to arrive any time soon. And if it does get a reboot, it wouldn't be the first franchise Microsoft is working to revive for Xbox One.
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