The game developer Fntastic has been forced to delay the release
of their game "The Day Before" due to a trade mark
dispute with a third party. Although the developer appears to have
correctly checked for the availability of the name before
announcing the game title, they subsequently failed to apply to
protect the name as a trade mark, allowing a third party to obtain
registered protection instead once the title was made public. Steam
have now blocked the "The Day Before" game page on their
platform at the behest of the registered trade mark owner,
assumingly on the basis of alleged trade mark
infringement.
Although an expense, the importance of obtaining registered
trade mark protection before going public with and/or using the
title for a new release should not be underestimated. In the long
run, this simple mistake is likely to prove more costly to
Fntastic.
