Rockstar Video games’ owner is battling Resolve Entertainment over it’s novel ‘R’ logo
Resolve Entertainment, the developer that created the Max Payne and Alan Wake video sport franchises, is embroiled in a trademark dispute with Retract-Two Interactive over claims that Resolve’s novel “R” logo too carefully resembles that of its subsidiary Rockstar Video games.
As first reported by RespawnFirst, the Rockstar parent firm has objected to trademark filings Resolve submitted to the Mental Property Locations of work in the UK and EU final twelve months, over grounds that the label is more doubtless to motive “confusion on the piece of the public.” Resolve publicly unveiled its updated “R” logo in a weblog submit on April 14th, 2023 — at some point soon after the firm filed its trademark application with the EU — announcing that the “bullet in the letter R in the outmoded logo represented the era of Max Payne,” and that it now not mirrored its wider sport portfolio.
Retract-Two submitted the Rockstar logo as evidence in opposition to Resolve’s trademark application
The developer moreover later submitted trademark functions with the UK on Could well maybe moreover 11th and the US on Could well maybe moreover 24th, with the latter filings peaceable “waiting for examination.” In flip, Retract-Two then filed its opposition in opposition to Resolve’s application with the EU on July 26th and the UK on September 12th. Retract-Two didn’t present any extra context for objecting to Resolve’s novel logo, however the Rockstar Video games logo became submitted in its private filings as evidence in opposition to the trademark application, suggesting its significant wretchedness is that they both prominently feature the letter “R.”
For the EU dispute particularly, both parties luxuriate in since requested an extension to the typical-or-garden two-month “cooling off interval” sooner than issues being hashed out in court. Adversarial proceedings won’t slouch ahead unless now not lower than September seventh, 2025 — unless the two companies discover to resolve the dispute between them first. That looks love a plausible consequence fascinated about Resolve Entertainment and Retract-Two luxuriate in a protracted-standing relationship. Resolve offered the Max Payne rights to Retract-Two in 2004 and has collaborated with Rockstar Video games on remakes for the first two games in the franchise.
Still, if Retract-Two does are attempting to push ahead with its objections, then it has a closing date of November sixth, 2025 to submit any longer evidence that supports its claims. The firm surely has a ancient previous of getting concerned with trademark disputes, having forced Hazelight Studio to abandon name possession rights for It Takes Two rapidly after the game became released in 2021.
