Several weeks ago, a relatively obscure Korean mobile developer suddenly made headlines after attempting to register an English trademark for its studio name, ahead of the overseas launch of its game Trickcal Re:VIVE, for no other reason other than the studio’s name – EPID Games.
As you might expect, this quickly caught the attention of Fortnite and Unreal Engine developer Epic Games, which filed a trademark objection and claimed the smaller studio’s name was too similar to its own, sparking concerns at EPID about a potential legal battle with a much larger company. Luckily for them, that concern was recently put to rest by Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, who confirmed they have no plans to sue the Korean developer – now or in the future.
As stated by Sweeney (via This Is Game), when filing an objection, Epic was simply following standard procedure to point out that the two names are similar and could potentially confuse customers. The company also recognizes that the confusion is mostly due to linguistic differences, with the CEO emphasizing that while “Epid” and “Epic” may sound alike in English, “에피드” and “에픽” are clearly distinguishable in Korean.
With that in mind, Epic says that they accept and respect the decision of Korean authorities to approve the trademark registration, while noting that if a similar case arises in another country, they may file an objection again.
“Raising objections when there is potential confusion over a trademark representing a company’s unique name or services is a very standard and ordinary procedure aimed at protecting the brand,” comments Sweeney.
EPID Games
Recently, Tim Sweeney also commented on Unreal Engine 5’s optimization issues, linking them to “the order of the development process” followed by many game studios. To address this, Epic plans to introduce various measures, including sending their own engineers to studios struggling to optimize their UE5-powered titles.
Don’t forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.
