20th Century Fox Claims 'Dice Age' Game Sounds Too Much Like Ice Age Movie

from the morons-in-a-hurry-with-dice dept

Mon, Aug 1st 2011 2:10pm — Mike Masnick

David Schumm points us to the news that the makers Dice Age, a strategy game involving some very funky and different dice, which was successfully funded via Kickstarter, has run into a bit of a stumbling block in trying to trademark its name. Apparently, the lawyers at 20th Century Fox have decided that Dice Age sounds too much like Ice Age, a movie put out by 20th Century Fox... or a "a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets." In other words, its a generic term. More importantly, it seems pretty damn clear from the video of the game Dice Age that it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the movie Ice Age (or, for that matter, the geological period, ice age):

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: dice age, games, ice age, trademark
Companies: news corp.

28 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Prisoner 201, 1 Aug 2011 @ 2:20pm

What do you call 200 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?

A good start.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
DandonTRJ (profile), 1 Aug 2011 @ 2:21pm

Ah yes, I see Fox is applying the standard trademark test of "moron in a hurry to buy nonexistent offshoot merchandise from non-traditional retail outlets while saddled with the cognitive inability to discern the first letter in a brand name or anything other than what's left of said brand name."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- PlagueSD (profile), 1 Aug 2011 @ 3:17pm
  
  Re:
  Ah yes, I see Fox is applying the standard trademark test of "moron in a hurry to buy nonexistent offshoot merchandise from non-traditional retail outlets while saddled with the cognitive inability to discern the first letter in a brand name or anything other than what's left of said brand name."
  
  Was going to say something sarcastic, but after reading this, it's no contest.
  
  Nicely put!!!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- G Thompson (profile), 1 Aug 2011 @ 8:07pm
  
  Re:
  and all I was going to say was that instead of applying the moron in a hurry' test, the FOX attorneys were the morons in a hurry.
  
  Your post is better ;)
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
blaktron (profile), 1 Aug 2011 @ 2:23pm

They dont have a case at all

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=4008%3A5pbch2.1.1&p_search=searchss& amp;p_L=50&BackReference=&p_plural=yes&p_s_PARA1=&p_tagrepl~%3A=PARA1%24LD&expr= PARA1+AND+PARA2&p_s_PARA2=ice+age&p_tagrepl~%3A=PARA2%24COMB&p_op_ALL=AND&a_default= search&a_search=Submit+Query&a_search=Submit+Query

There are at least 3 other companies with a Trademark on 'Ice Age' and as far as I know none of the trademarks mention dice at all, although they literally mention everything else.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 1 Aug 2011 @ 4:02pm
  
  Re:
  A case? You don't need a case to win a lawsuit. All you need is deep pockets and an army of lawyers. Just appeal over and over again until either you win or the other side settles.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
E. Zachary Knight (profile), 1 Aug 2011 @ 2:23pm

Let's Die.
I like that motto. I think more giant media companies need to adopt it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 1 Aug 2011 @ 8:16pm
  
  Re: Let's Die.
  Morituri nolumus mori.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
sheenyglass (profile), 1 Aug 2011 @ 2:28pm

In related news..
...20th Century Fox is being sued by Time and Evolution for infringing on their Century and Fox trademarks, respectively.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 1 Aug 2011 @ 2:32pm

Fox should sue Wizards of the Coast for their "Ice Age" expansion to Magic the Gathering. If Fox's "Ice Age" trademark applies to dice games, I don't see why it wouldn't apply to card games as well.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- rangda (profile), 1 Aug 2011 @ 3:00pm
  
  Re:
  They'd have a little problem with that. Ice Age the Magic expansion came out in 1995, Ice Age the movie came out in 2002. Wizards of the Coast is also owned by Hasbro, who unlike the maker of this dice game, has a nuclear stockpile of lawyers and would fire back.
  
  Just yet another case of a big company using the law as a club against a small company that cannot fight back.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Prashanth (profile), 1 Aug 2011 @ 2:47pm

1. I think the judge should throw out this case because anyway, the term "ice age" was in common currency long before the movie Ice Age came out, so 20th Century Fox has no more rights to that term than this game company does (and moreover, this game company is being creative with the rhyming, whereas 20th Century Fox just used the original term, unaltered). I mean, what's next, trademarking the name "Madagascar" and suing the inhabitants of that nation?
2. There is still hope, because once, LexisNexis tried to get an injunction against Toyota over the use of the name "Lexus" when Lexus was first introduced; an appeals court ruled against LexisNexis (which should be obvious considering Lexus still exists today).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
BongoBern (profile), 1 Aug 2011 @ 3:20pm

Dice Age?
Does not remotely sound like - well it "sounds" like "Ice Age" but not exactly. The "D" would indicate that it's not about mammoths and sabre-tooth tigers, and more about spotted cubes. I'm not sure how cold dice can get, though Lady Luck can freeze you out. Still, we've never found any frozen gamblers from the "ice" age. Unless you count the hunters who went after mammoths and tigers with stone tipped sticks!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Richard (profile), 1 Aug 2011 @ 3:57pm

ICE should be worried
that Fox will sue them next..

Maybe they'll have to seize themselves..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- G Thompson (profile), 1 Aug 2011 @ 8:10pm
  
  Re: ICE should be worried
  If they siezed themselves wouldn't they be infringing on the TSA's patent of groping?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 1 Aug 2011 @ 4:14pm

The subject of IP litigation increases in its stupidity each year. (If only 20th Century Fox had filed suit against Al Qaeda for the 9/11/01 destruction of the Twin Towers, perhaps the nation might have avoided the tragic consequences of Mr. Bush's ill-advised gambit in Afghanistan and Iraq?) This case has the stink of a preemptive suit, promulgated to prevent the game Dice Age from potentially cashing in on the lucrative cartoon franchise, without the gamemaker's showing any intent to infringe. A 6 year-old could possibly confuse the two terms and badger his mother to buy Dice Age instead of purchasing officially licensed Ice Age merchandise. To paraphrase another MGM hit from the Golden Age of film, "Frankly my dear, the court won't give a damn." I suppose a 1st year associate might argue that MGM induced infringement by choosing a name for its frozen franchise similar to that of a published game? I hope the makers of Dice Age file a counter-suit in the East Texas Circuit, where a judge would see fit to sock-it-to-MGM with costs plus for filing such a frivolous suit.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 1 Aug 2011 @ 4:24pm

So...do we have to change the name of the actual ice age now? Maybe the 'glacial era' or something. Quick, somebody check to see if glacial era is taken.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
trish, 1 Aug 2011 @ 5:00pm

ice age
I think the Earth should sue 20th Century Fox. This "Ice Age" movie blatantly rips off Earth's Intellectual property.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 1 Aug 2011 @ 5:09pm

The only "moron in a hurry" that seems to be confused is 20th Century Fox.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Atkray (profile), 1 Aug 2011 @ 5:52pm

As punishment for this bone head move (no offense to boneheads) Fox should lose all rights to anything they have with the words Ice or Age in it. Put it all in the public domain.

You bring a ridiculous lawsuit you lose the rights to the property.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
gorehound (profile), 1 Aug 2011 @ 6:25pm

They should throw this out of court and also hold FOX in contempt for the waste of the courts time.
fine them big !!!!

ASSHOLES
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
md1500 (profile), 1 Aug 2011 @ 6:33pm

A dicey situation.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 1 Aug 2011 @ 7:54pm

Dear Movie Industry, thank you for giving me another reason to dislike you, and insure I never go to a theater again and that all movies I watch are either pre-owned or on Netflix.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
disfit (profile), 1 Aug 2011 @ 10:39pm

Greed
As with many or even most stories on techdirt (though the Winkelvii are a prime example) when reading this one I wish that greed would be a criminal offense. Preferred punishment? Losing everything you have (no need to enlarge the prison system).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

Web design, 2 Aug 2011 @ 5:43am

20th Century Fox is right this time!
Web design
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
canit (profile), 2 Aug 2011 @ 5:47am

DICE AGE.... Amazing!
20th Century Coxs is part and parcel of what's wrong here in the U.Sue of A... makeup your own word here.
Big companies with lots of money and nerve go after small upstart companies like this gentleman's, solely on sound alike verbiage... that they them selves "steal" or is that "borrow" every-time they make a product.
Whether its a city back ground and its citizens that never get any part of the box office proceeds or the use of a name like the term "Ice Age" that existed decades before their product ever existed. Using items like guns and airplanes in their movies where the inventors are never compensated. or the worse of the worse, the hapless writer who's script is stolen, who who was under payed for his property..... go figure! It's a no brainer.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Tristan Convert, 21 Dec 2011 @ 8:53am

Dice Age �
We held the ground and Dice Age has been fully registered as a trademark yesterday.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Agentia Web, 13 Mar 2012 @ 7:47am

A great chance to make a lot of money....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]