Hazelight, had to abandon ownership of the It Takes Two trademark after Take-Two Interactive filed a claim for alleged copyright infringement

Well-known publisher Take-Two Interactive, which counts Rockstar Games and 2K Games among its ranks, sued Hazelight for use of the trademark for its latest video game shortly after It Takes Two was released in March. Eurogamer has now picked up on the legal battle, the immediate result of which is that Josef Fares’ studio had to give up ownership of the game’s name, filing a letter of abandonment with the US patent office.

According to a spokesperson for the studio, Hazelight hopes that this move has resolved the legal dispute that Take-Two Interactive had intended to pursue in the event that no action was taken given the similarity of the two names. However, the same person clarifies that they “cannot issue statements of ongoing disputes”, so this case may not be over.

For the moment Hazelight is left without the ‘It Takes Two’ trademark and we don’t know if there will be any further consequences, such as a possible change of the game’s name, or if it will affect in any way the marketing of this title that recently surpassed three million copies sold worldwide since its launch and has been nominated for a multitude of awards such as The Game Awards 2021.

This is not the first time that Take-Two Interactive has taken similar action with companies or brands whose name is somewhat similar to that of its intellectual properties:  the company has sent similar complaints to businesses such as the Starrocks or Max Fayne brands, the Think Like A Rockstar ticket shop or Rockstar Axe Throwing, an axe-throwing venue. There are more similar cases in the industry involving companies such as Bethesda, which asked video games such as Scrolls or Praey for the Gods to change their titles so as not to infringe the intellectual property of their The Elder Scrolls or Prey franchises.

At the moment It Takes Two is still out on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Source: vandal