Ubisoft Drops Watchdogs Trademark....Or Not

On February 1st the United States Patent and Trademark Office emailed Ubisoft to let them know that they had approved the company's request to drop the Trademark of Watch Dogs. This proved a bit of a surprise as they had previously applied for an extension on more than one occasion and previous press releases had stated that the game was still in development.

As of the 3rd of February the situation has changed. According to a petition to reinstate the trademark the request was fraudulent.

On February 1, 2014, Ubisoft Entertainment received an email from TEAS@uspto.gov notifying Ubisoft Entertainment that a Request for Express Abandonment had been filed in connection with Application Serial No. 85642398,

The Request for Express Abandonment purports to be signed by the Chief Executive Officer of Ubisoft Entertainment, Yves Guillemot.

Mr. Guillemot, however, did not sign the Request for Express Abandonment, nor did Ubisoft Entertainment file the Request for Express Abandonment.  The Request for Express Abandonment is fraudulent and was not filed by Ubisoft Entertainment or its representative.

 

Now this is a twist on the troll-like activities of various miscreants that inhabit the world, and could indeed have caused Ubisoft no end of problems.

In a statement to Polygon and Ubisoft representative stated

We are working directly with the USPTO on reinstating the trademark for Watch Dogs and it will be active again in the coming days. The matter has no impact on the Watch Dogs' development.