Ever heard of the upcoming animated movie "Foodfight!"? Lawsuit threatened.
Some of you may know of my game Food Fight! which has been on the app store for almost a year now. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/food-fight/id352646643?mt=8 Well, a couple weeks ago our client (who we made the game for) got a letter demanding they remove the game as we were supposedly infringing on this someday-to-be-made movie.
The implication was that there has been so much publicity that we were just trying to take advantage of them.
WTF?
So I did some looking and the movie is in development, and has been for a few years, but no release date and nobody I've talked to has ever heard of it. Here is what the studio is marketing: http://www.thresholdanimationstudios.com/video.php?id=foodfight
Now they are shopping for investors. And I'm sure they will develop some sort of game based on the movie.
Anyway, I think the answer is just no, we will not remove the game. I don't see any similarity to their movie characters and our game characters or game play, the term "Food Fight" is pretty generic. And finally, there is another movie called "food fight", a documentary that got rave reviews when it came out a couple years ago.
So here is their movie's main character:
And here is a screen of the characters in our game:
Anybody see any resemblance?
The implication was that there has been so much publicity that we were just trying to take advantage of them.
WTF?
So I did some looking and the movie is in development, and has been for a few years, but no release date and nobody I've talked to has ever heard of it. Here is what the studio is marketing: http://www.thresholdanimationstudios.com/video.php?id=foodfight
Now they are shopping for investors. And I'm sure they will develop some sort of game based on the movie.
Anyway, I think the answer is just no, we will not remove the game. I don't see any similarity to their movie characters and our game characters or game play, the term "Food Fight" is pretty generic. And finally, there is another movie called "food fight", a documentary that got rave reviews when it came out a couple years ago.
So here is their movie's main character:
And here is a screen of the characters in our game:
Anybody see any resemblance?
Comments
I wouldn't take any action and just wait and see if they followup. At that point I would send them a letter asking them to point out what violations they deem the game to have made .. so that if they reply to that at least you would better determine if they have any issues with merit.
Once the Marketropolis Market closes for the night, product icons come to life. However, problems occur when Brand X comes into the store and Sunshine Goodness disappears."
Sounds like they are ripping off the concept of toy story with the everything comes to life one the store closes plot. and all those big names and we still haven't heard of it yet. I bet its got another year at minimum before its released.
It's prob some fresh outta college lawyer working for the studio trying to build his resume.
The models and texturing looks like the kind of quality we'd have done for a game intro from 5 years ago.... so looking pretty dated now.
It looks like a straight to video movie for the bargain bins....
So I looked it up on IMDB... and found out it was released 2008/2009, and pretty much flopped. I was shocked to see it had an estimated production budget of $65,000,000 though.... most of that must have gone on the voice actors fees though, as it certainly doesnt look like its gone into the visuals...
So maybe theyre trying to claw back some of that money they wasted.... !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Fight_(video_game)
Personally, I wouldn't use the name Food Fight. I remember that classic 1980's video fondly.
But in this scenario, it's tricky. If I was in the mood for a fight, I'd probably do a lot of laughing. I'm not sure which side would win. I'm not a lawyer. In general, I think they should be friendly about such matters.
Also, I noticed a significant difference. Foodfight... as one word... yours is Food Fight. Which is it? Does it matter? (You're in different areas too. Does a trademark on a movie apply to a video game?)
First search marks here:
http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp
There are a lot of LIVE FF marks registered.
Then you need to document your usage of your mark. Did you
apply for a TM? You have 1 year once you exhibit publicly.
If you are the legitimate owner...you can probably license it to
them...or do the app work? I would bring in a lawyer to help.
John
Also, if you did register the game name, then you're safe, if not, it's a grey area at this point...
I am the director of the documentary "FOOD FIGHT" and I am happy to share my experience with you about threatening letters from Threshhold Entertainment. I received several, from two different law firms. If you are interested, please contact me at my listed e-mail address.
Best,
Chris Taylor
Director
FOOD FIGHT
www.foodfightthedoc.com
Windows is a trademark for computer software with the style, font and logo, how it appears.
You can make a "windows" movie and nobody can sue you. You probably can make even a software called Windows, if you use other fonts and another logo, which are clearly different from the MS product.
Nobody can trademark and copyright a common word.
I would send them to hell, if I were you.
They try to make a few quick bucks.
Nobody heared from that movie ever.