Sins of a Solar Empire dev discusses 'Rebellion' lawsuit
Following two years of legal battles, Ironclad Studios has been granted the right to use the word "Rebellion" in the title of its latest space exploration epic, a decision it hopes will set a precedent for the increasingly litigious gaming industry.
"Rebellion Developments [developer of Alien vs Predator] and its founders (Chris and Jason Kingsley) have aggressively opposed or petitioned to cancel trademarks containing the word 'Rebellion' and have been very successful in preventing third party use of the word 'Rebellion' in conjunction with video-games in the U.S. and Europe," Ironclad stated in a recent blog entry. In court, Rebellion attempted to argue that the title Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion was an attempt by Ironclad to trade on Rebellion's success as a developer, but Judge Victoria Roberts saw things differently. "...Defendants' use of REBELLION is expressive speech and is protected under the First Amendment," Roberts stated in her judgement. "Plaintiffs cannot satisfy the Rogers test; they cannot establish that REBELLION has no artistic relevance to Defendants' computer game, or that it is explicitly misleading as to source or content. Defendants' Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED."
Though this is good news, Ironclad isn't out of the woods just yet. The studio recently learned that Rebellion has filed to oppose Ironclad's trademark in Canada, and there have been "unconfirmed reports that [Rebellion] issued a cease and desist order to our partner in the United Kingdom."
[Image: Stardock]
