Sony Temporarily Loses Trademark on The Last Guardian, Again

To be any good as a journalist, gaming or otherwise, you have to know where the story lurks. Sometimes the most interesting bits of news, or the most telling information about the industry, is where you’d never think to look. I can’t pretend I’m that thorough all the time, but fortunately there are others in the field who are; such as the fine folks at NeoGaf who spotted that Sony has failed to renew its trademark on The Last Guardian.

That, as I'm sure many of you realize, is bad.

In case you don’t know how these things work (lord knows I didn’t), back in 2012 Sony filled out an “Intent to Use” application for The Last Guardian, which meant, fairly straightforwardly, that they intended to make and release a game by the name The Last Guardian at some point in the future. It’s a fairly standard step in the game-making process. However, you can’t just file an ‘intent to use’ application and sit on it; every six months, the United States Patent and Trademark Office would check in with Sony to see how it was doing, and Sony could either tell them how they were using the trademark or simply ask for an extension.

And for a while, Sony was doing just that. But at the latest deadline, January 15th of 2015, Sony, for whatever reason, didn’t.

Now, here's the good news.  Even while I was writing this article, Sony has since spoken out on the dropped trademark and assured us that it was not done intentionally, and that the game is still being developed.  While I have nothing to quote, this information comes to us via Gamespot, who claims us that Sony has contacted them on the matter to quell gamers fears.

This was a troubling episode, but not unprecedented. Back in 2012, a similar problem arose with the trademark office, which lead to Sony needing to re-apply the game to the USPTO.  The game, despite the pedigree of its developers and the excitement it has generated, has had a long and tumultuous development since it was first announced in 2009.  While it's good to see the game is still being developed, this is a stiff reminder to Team Ico fans everywhere that you'll only get to rest easy once the game is physically in your hands.

Or you could just play Shadow of the Colossus again.  Like a fine wine, its only gotten better with age.