Now EA's trying to Trademark the word "Ghost"

Seems like everyone is jumping on the ‘let’s trademark a commonly used word for fun and profit’ bandwagon lately. Sony, as we reported earlier, tried (and failed, thankfully) to trademark the term ‘Let’s Play’, but that’s only the first of many examples of this horrible trend. King, the developer behind the Candy Crush game, has gone ahead and trademarked the term ‘Candy’, a you may have heard that popular YouTubers The Fine Brothers were trying to trademark the word ‘react’... although their basic sense of humanity came back and they’ve since canceled their application.

But gosh, you know, something about this whole situation is odd. I mean, here we have an easily exploitable legal stipulation that could allow a developer to earn a lot of money in frivolous lawsuits and dick measuring contests, and on of the biggest dicks in the industry, EA, is nowhere to be found. Well, worry not, kids--EA is still as evil as you remember, and is currently trying to ride the “vague trademark to exploit for future profit” bandwagon.

However, we’ve got ourselves a bit of an unlikely (and likely accidental) defender.

Y’see, EA currently owns Ghost Games Studios, the guys behind the Need for Speed franchise. Understandably, EA would like to ensure that no one unjustly tries to use that name--and the goodwill that comes with it--to their own advantage. To do that, then, they’ve decided they’re going to trademark the word ‘ghost’.

Not “Ghost Games." "Ghost." That has to be the flimsiest grounds for a trademark since… all the other things listed on the first paragraph of this article.

Now, when you file for a trademark, there’s a 19-day grace period where people can file counter-suits. And as always, the diligent folks over at NeoGaf were able to catch this, as well as notice that another company had already filed a counter-suit claiming that such a trademark was unfair. That company? Ubisoft, of all things, publisher of the semi-famous Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon.

So, they’re going to enter something of a legal struggle in the next few days. Now, when two famously evil entities battle, usually it makes for good watching, but somehow I doubt this will be the gaming equivalent of Freddy Vs Jason. It’ll probably wind up more like Birdemic--a surprisingly watchable if terribly anticlimactic joke.