San Francisco, Calif. Bethesda has sued Interplay over the unauthorized use of its Fallout trademark. The company also demanded that the District of Maryland Court issue an injunction barring Interplay from selling any items with a Fallout mark.
According to Bethesda, “any and all” of Interplay’s limited rights to use the Fallout name have been permanently forfeited and terminated. To be sure, Bethesda reportedly acquired all rights to the name from Interplay, while the latter – subjected to Bethesda’s approval – was granted limited merchandising rights.
In addition, Interplay was permitted to use the Fallout mark for the development of a MMOG under certain financial and developmental pre-conditions. However, the MMOG and limited merchandising rights were subsequently revoked due to Interplay’s “failure” to meet the above-mentioned pre-conditions.
Indeed, Bethesda alleges that Interplay distributed a video game package under the name Fallout Trilogy, which is “confusingly similar” to Fallout 3. In addition, Bethesda also manufactured, sold and distributed video game packages under the unauthorized names of “Fallout Collection” and “Saga Fallout.”
The misuse of the “Fallout” trademark has apparently confused even Amazon, which erroneously listed the “Fallout Collection” as having been manufactured by Bethesda.
As such, Bethesda has requested an injunction barring Interplay from selling merchandise with the Fallout trademark.
“The benefits to Bethesda in obtaining a permanent injunction are equal to or outweigh the potential harm, if any, which Defendant Interplay would incur if this Court were to issue a permanent injunction,” Bethesda wrote in a legal document obtained by TG Daily. “Unless enjoined by this Court, Defendant Interplay will continue to manufacture, sell and distribute ‘Fallout Trilogy,’ ‘Fallout Collection,’ ‘Saga Fallout’ and individual pre-existing Fallout Games, and otherwise commit acts constituting willful violations of Bethesda’s trademark rights and breaches without excuse or justification.”
It should be noted that Interplay originally developed and sold Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel.
