Can You Trademark Zombies Running Around In A Mall?
That’s the question a judge will have to answer as MKR Group, owners of the rights to George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, plan to sue Capcom over Dead Rising, a best-selling videogame with a similar theme. Capcom has filed its preemptive strike, asking for a declaratory judgment and payment of its attorneys’ fees.
The two companies spent nearly two years trying to hash these problems out but couldn’t reach a resolution. Capcom released the game with a disclaimer saying it was in no way related to Romero’s work. Dead Rising was well received by critics and players for its open-ended gameplay. Nearly every item in the ill-fated Willamette Mall, including hockey sticks, foam fingers and lawnmowers can be used as a weapon.
The videogame company famous for Mega Man, Street Fighter II and the zombie-packed Resident Evil game series said MKR had sent a copy of a draft complaint to Capcom as well as game retailer Best Buy and Microsoft. Microsoft produces the Xbox 360 console Dead Rising released on. In its filing, Capcom said customers would be very unlikely to confuse the two products and that the horror concept of zombies in a mall is “wholly unprotectable.”
Tags: Best Buy, Capcom, Dawn of the Dead, Dead Rising, George Romero, Microsoft, MKR Group, Xbox 360Related Stories
POSTED IN: Movies
1 opinion for Can You Trademark Zombies Running Around In A Mall?
Cynthia
Feb 17, 2008 at 1:29 am
When we got our Nintendo one of my favorite games to play was Zombies Ate My Neighbors. It was impossible to beat and had level codes that were like 25 letters long! Dead Rising sounds more like that game than the Dead movies.
And what’s with the zombie theme this week? This game, Shawn Roberts from Diary of the Dead and Supernatural this week looks like it came straight out of Night of the Living Dead!
Let’s declare this zombie week and find more zombie stories to talk about!
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