Thu, Aug 09, 2012 | 21:06 BST
The Last Guardian’s trademark has been “abandoned,” panic probably unneccessary — Report
A recent update on Trademarkia says that Team Ico’s long-delayed adventure title The Last Guardian has had the status of its trademark changed to “Abandoned – No Statement Of Use Filed.”
Now, before you start to panic (like much of the internet today), know that this in no way means that The Last Guardian has been cancelled. Instead, it just appears that Sony has, for some unknown reason, decided to not renew the trademark of the game.
Gaming industry gossip Superannuation has a helpful series of tweets on the matter, explaining that Sony could file for extensions of The Last Guardian’s trademark for up to three years after receiving a Notice of Allowance — which essentially sets up a due date for a company to make good on their intent to use a given product — from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. At that point, the company would be forced to prove that the game has been used commercially.
Sony reportedly received this Notice of Allowance for The Last Guardian in January 2010, meaning that they then had until January 2013 to show commercial use. Since the follow-up to Shadow of the Colossus has been stuck in an exceedingly slow development process over the years, it’s not exactly surprising to hear that the game was not likely to make it to market by that time. Ipso facto, the trademark expired.
Of course, there’s also the possibility that Sony has either changed the name of the game and no longer needs the trademark, or that they simply forgot to file their paperwork in time.
As for what happens next, Sony can simply file to appeal or revive the trademark at any time they’d like in the future.
The Last Guardian, a PlayStation 3 exclusive, is without a release date at this time.
18 comments
#1
Gekidami
09/08/12, 9:03 pm
http://i.minus.com/ivW9fJ769HNeL.gif
#2
a7md1990
09/08/12, 9:14 pm
@1, ROFLMFAO!!!, you sir have just made my day!. Thank you.
#3
Jeff Dunn
09/08/12, 9:19 pm
@1 Completely made the time it took to write this worth it
#4
OrbitMonkey
09/08/12, 9:24 pm
Dear Ueda, If rumours are true… Just what did you spunk the money on man?!
#5
Ireland Michael
09/08/12, 9:29 pm
*runs around like a chicken with its head cut off*
#6
monkeygourmet
09/08/12, 9:35 pm
Hopefully still come out on PS4.
Been a looooooong time though, never a good sign. Times change, and good gameplay ideas can quickly become out of date.
It’s not so bad having long dev cycles in things like Gran Turismo, because, at the end of it, it’s still just a racing game.
The mechanic this used (from gameplay, it looked like you and the cat griffin thing worked together), has been done quite a bit in other games. Majin being a good example although not a fantastic game.
I bet this started out fresh and very quickly became a chore to flesh out for a full game.
Still, it had potential even though we all knew the griffin cat would die at the end… O__o
#7
Razor
09/08/12, 9:39 pm
Yoshida must be receiving an absolute torrent of tweets right about now.
#8
KAP
09/08/12, 9:53 pm
With Shadow Of The Collosus being my favourite game ever I have to admit this is getting rediculous now, like seriously now?
#9
Gadzooks!
09/08/12, 9:53 pm
I really doubt it would be canned. Sony held out for GT5, I believe they will hold out for TLG.
#10
monkeygourmet
09/08/12, 10:03 pm
@9
Both games do hugely different sales figures though. I hope they don’t cancel, one of the reasons I originally got my PS3, Still waiting!
#11
loveaya
09/08/12, 10:15 pm
I think the same thing has happened to FFV13 or gonna happen.
#12
TD_Monstrous69
09/08/12, 10:24 pm
@1 That had me dying of laughter. @9 Though I do agree with you, both are at different ends of the spectrum in games.
If I could make a hunch as to why it is this has happened, it could be a cost-cutting measure. I mean, it must’ve cost Sony some money to keep the trademark around for a game that just seems nowhere close to being done, (and one they’d burned a lot of money in development on). At this point, I’m just hoping this comes between now, and the launch of the PS4 (whenever that is), or it’s just held off until then, or even a little after that. Until then, my attention for gaming’s focused elsewhere.
#13
KrazyKraut
09/08/12, 11:01 pm
@1 Awesome, Gif of 2012 xD
Wtf is going on? No info, just excuses from 2010 onwards… we want to know whats up Sony, NOW!!! I have the feeling that sony will answer about this in the next 48 hours.
#14
Moonwalker1982
09/08/12, 11:10 pm
Sony says it’s still in development!
http://gamingeverything.com/26472/sony-the-last-guardian-is-still-in-development/
#15
IL DUCE
09/08/12, 11:36 pm
@1 hahahaha hysterical
Game looked super lame anyway though so idc, total vaporware…won’t be surprised if we see it some time down the road on PS4
#16
Telepathic.Geometry
10/08/12, 12:16 am
@1: That was the most epic gif of the year. My hat’s off to you sir.
#17
deathm00n
10/08/12, 2:42 pm
I wonder how long the game will be. What if we buy it and discover in 8 hours we can end it and it has no replaybility. THE HORROR!
#18
sg1974
11/08/12, 10:39 pm
Apple have sent them a letter saying the words “the”, “last” and “guardian” are identical to the words “the”, “last” and “guardian” that they have used previously. They’ve just filed at a San Francisco court an internal memo from 2006 in which they’ve used “the” four times. They also said “last” has appeared in several iPad and iPhone adverts, and “guardian” is the name of a popular iOS app.