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EA Abandons Trademark Filing For 'Ghost'
Earlier this month, Ubisoft objected to EA's attempt to trademark the word "ghost," using its catalog of Tom Clancy: Ghost Recon games to suggest that EA's trademark would cause some confusion. According to recent documents, it looks like EA has withdrawn its trademarking attempt.
It still isn't clear what EA was hoping to use the word for, though the original filing covered "Entertainment services" and "Computer game software," so the idea that it was for a new series or an attempt to rebrand one of EA's current or older ones isn't far-fetched. Whatever the trademark was intended for, it looks like EA is going to have to go back to the drawing board.
Of course, this isn't the first time that gaming companies have battled over trademarked words. In 2011, Bethseda, the developer and publisher of The Elder Scrolls series, took Mojang to court over Scrolls and in 2014 King, the developer of the popular Candy Crush Saga, started enforcing its trademark of the word 'candy' (to disastrous results).
Our Take
Ghost is a pretty common word, so it's not too surprising that EA abandoned this rather than lawyer up for a series of expensive court battles.
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