Devil's Third Dev Valhalla Game Studios Taken to Court Over Trademark - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 11 November 2015 / 4,721 Views
Devil's Third developer Valhalla Game Studios is being taken to court by Valhalla Motion Pictures over a trademark dispute.
The two logos, seen above, are similar, and so too are the two companies' names. Valhalla Motion Pictures has been around much longer and has played a pivotal role in a number of high profile film releases, such as the Terminator series, Aliens, and Armageddon.
Thanks NeoGAF.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Oh so the motion pictures claim to have property to everything Valhalla and a viking boat. Someone warn the Nords!
Can one really make claim to something like that?
They can, but it doesn't mean they will get anything from it. They will have to prove irreparable loss and that their logo can be mistaken for the other. Personally unless you are blind they really are not that close, the game studio has more detail to the boat, has a different sail texture and doesn't have a moon. I left out mirroring because that doesn't really make any real legal difference.
Sorry for the double post. And on examining the boat they look like two different boats. The game studio looks like a viking long boat, while the motion picture one looks more a like a Greek Trireme, the one where slaves row in the bottom level with a pronounced front. And the last I checked likenesses of both are public domain.
From a legal standpoint this will not go far. This hits me like trolling. Other then being monochromatic there is little that can be claimed as infringing. The name cannot be claimed for several reasons two of them are the word Valhalla is considered public domain. The second big one they are in two different type of industries. A third is the font of the logos which are visually different fonts. The pictures also have a lot that separate them. And a gain the likeness of a boat is considered public domain unless they created that exact boat. Plus as I pointed out they look like two very different type of boats. (Trireme vs Longship)
The environment and positioning is different. While mirroring isn't considered there is that the game studio's is on a rough sea ridding a wave. The movie studio's looks like it is on a cliff and not water due to the lack of detail. There are also elements details that set each other apart, the flag on the mass, the paddles instead of the shields, the front of the boat and the shape. The only thing they could claim is possibly the font that they used to write Game Studios, which may be the same or near the font that was used in Motion Pictures. Personally I would be very surprised if it made it to court. It also reminds me when the Motion Picture industry took Nintendo to court over Donkey Kong claiming it infringed on their rights to King Kong, which they couldn't prove for various reasons.
Of course hollywood has to sue game devolopers since they dont make money anymore with their lousy movies
The only thing the companies share are the "Valhalla" name that is of pubblic domain and the ship in the logo that is related to the name... you could just say that it's kinda strange that both companies chose a white and black logo
Yeah the only claim they would have there is the font and the two use different fonts.
