Thailand: significant courtroom victory trademarking video game titles
A video game’s title is perhaps one of the most valuable assets a game developer owns. When a game title is registered as a trademark, it gives the owner exclusive rights to the title and prevents others from using it for their own games, goods, or services. However, whether a game title is descriptive of the computer game is a question that has arisen periodically in Thailand in connection with trademark applications for video game titles.
According to current practice, a game title is considered descriptive of a computer game by the trademark registrar and the Board of Trademarks at Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property (DIP), regardless of whether the term is connected to the game’s actual features or characteristics.
Video game title trademark infringement
In a recent instance, a mobile game developer decided to oppose a trademark registration refusal for a video game title. The developer has filed a trademark application for the title of their mobile game ‘Clash Royale’ in the classes of computer game software (Class 9) and electronic games, having brought several successful mobile games to the worldwide market (Class 28). The registrar and the Board of Trademarks both rejected this application due to non-distinctiveness.
The registrar and the board decided that the titles “Clash Royale” and “battle of the kings” can be used interchangeably. These terms identify the nature of the goods in the applied-for classes as “games related to kings’ battles,” and hence are not registrable since they do not demonstrate the uniqueness required by Thailand’s Trademark Act.
In this instance, the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court (IP&IT Court) took a different approach to the uniqueness of the game title than the registrar and the Board of Trademarks. The court determined that the mark is unique enough to be registered, and that ‘Clash Royale’ is only a suggestive mark rather than an actual game description. Consumers would need to use their imagination to comprehend the connection between the brand ‘Clash Royale’ and the computer game.
The IP&IT Court’s judgement in this case provided solid reasoning for the differences between suggestive and descriptive marks when used as game titles, including examples of titles that accurately describe a game’s appearance and characteristics (e.g. action game, role-playing game or RPG, adventure game, simulation game).
The decision of the IP&IT Court is not yet finalized, since the DIP may still submit an appeal. This decision, however, is a positive step forward, and depending on the result of the lawsuit, it might even signify a shift in the criterion for registering a game title as a trademark in Thailand.
– You could visit here to see Procedure of Thailand Trademark Registration.
– You could visit here to check the required documents for filing trademark in Thailand here.
– You could read 06 Frequent Questions About Filing Trademark In Thailand here.
– You could visit here to see Power of Attorney of trademark in Thailand here.
– You could read 07 Legal Notes To Thailand Trademark Law You Need To Know here
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