If you’ve been keeping up with our updates, you might be aware of the trademark dispute between Fntastic and The Day Before game that we previously mentioned. But, new information is now accessible, courtesy of Eurogamer, who revealed the most recent news. We now know that Fntastic did not register the game’s name as a trademark since the game was delayed. As a consequence, the business that did register the trademark requested that Steam delete the game’s listing, which led to the removal of the game from the platform.
Eurogamer has confirmed that the trademark dispute is with a Korean company that has developed a calendar app with the same name as Fntastic’s game, causing a confusing situation. In fact, the ten-minute raw gameplay footage in the Eurogamer article has been taken down because of the trademark claim by the third party. Fntastic expressed their discontent with the situation, stating in the article that “the so-called ‘owner’ of the rights to the title is the creator of the calendar app, which has nothing to do with the game’s category.”
Fntastic Trademark – The Plot Thickens
The Korean developer has also responded to Eurogamer. They state they hold the trademark rights for the name ‘The Day Before’. They further told Eurogamer that they are “taking measures to protect trademark rights”. This is what they had to say.
We first distributed the app under the name ‘The Day Before’ in 2010 to provide anniversary count app services used in many countries around the world.
We hold trademark rights to the app’s name ‘The Day Before’ and have so far recorded over 40m downloads.
Since the trademark registration in Korea in 2015, we have held the right (registered in the name of ‘The Day Before’ CEO Lee Sun-jae). Knowing that the game of the same name was produced, we are taking measures to protect trademark rights.
We currently hold trademark rights in Korea, the United States, China, Russia, Japan, Vietnam, and the European Union.
Eurogamer also reported that Mytona Fntastic Limited (MFL) filed an administrative trial in Korea. The development team behind the app couldn’t “deliver the details of the ongoing part”. Though they said they want this problem solved as fast as humanly possible and also protect their app and its users. I did search the app on the Google Play store and found it and reviews going back to 2010. So this could be an interesting story as time goes by. Last heard the game was slated for November.
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