Bandai Namco Is Apparently Looking To Trademark The Term 'Finishing Move'
from the fatality dept
Okay, this really needs to stop happening. There has been a recent wave of those in some way involved in the video gaming business applying for trademarks on insanely common gaming terms and phrases. We saw this in recent examples, such as Sony's brazen attempt to trademark "let's play," a term for wildly popular online videos showing games in action. Tangentially, the Fine Brothers' attempt to transform "react videos" into a licensing revenue stream was met with heavy criticism, warranted or not. And now we have Bandai Namco trying to trademark the term "finishing move" in Japanese.
Specifically, Bandai Namco is trying to patent the Japanese term “Hissatsuwaza,” which translates to “finishing move.” While the term may not be used all that often in English, it is extremely common in Japanese video games, anime, and manga. Though the term seems very clear-cut, it doesn’t always mean that an opponent is “finished.” For example, current Street Fighter games have finishing moves that are flashy but don’t actually kill the opponent like, say, the finishing moves in Mortal Kombat do.Gamers here in the United States will instantly be familiar with the term "finishing move", having heard its use in all manner of games for decades, from fighting games like Mortal Kombat, to games in other genres, and even as the term has bled into non-gaming vernacular. "Finish Him!" -- the phrase shouted at the culminating moment of a Mortal Kombat game -- is certainly well-known enough for even non-gamers to be familiar with it.
The point is that this trademark attempt comes so unbelievably late in the game that it's hard to view it as anything other than a money-grab achieved through the locking up of common language. Much of the commentary surrounding Bandai Namco's actions here surmise that the attempt is doomed to failure for all the reasons that led to Sony's failure. But this is trademark we're talking about, and with a foreign language thrown in to boot, so who knows?
I don’t see this happening, but if it does, we may see a bunch of games have to call their finishing moves something else. We also don’t know if this trademark extends to non-Japanese speaking countries, since the trademark is technically for “Hissatsuwaza.”More interesting to me is what the attempt illustrates, which is that incumbent businesses aren't wielding trademark for its purpose, but are instead weaponizing it as either a money-maker or to stamp out competition.
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Filed Under: finishing move, japan, trademark, video games
Companies: bandai namco
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Now?
If they wanted the trademark at the release of the first Mortal Combat or whenever finishing moves were introduced, then maybe I could have understood it. But now, more than a decade or two later?
Unless of course I am missing something and there really is a reason why people try it now instead of years ago.
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I really don't understand ...
In the 90's the then novel mobile branch of the Statal phone company of Portugal, then called TMN, got a trademark on the portmanteau "telemovel" ( that in portuguese is a contraction of "mobile phone" ) to suposedely protect their brand in the wake of market opening to new brands. The issue was that the term became so popular that actually became the acepted term in ( European ) Portuguese for mobile phone and TMN got stuck in a situation were their trademark on the word was unenforceable in all pratical ways. So they ended never enforcing it and let the claim on the word drop silently ...
What I mean to say is that IMHO this kind of trademarks is a bad deal for the companies in general: either their trademark word becomes sucessful and they can't really enforce their trademark without major hassles and lawyering fees or the claim is easily enforceable because the term never picked up and so there is little to protect. It is loss-loss situation for everyone ... except for the lawyering people that leech in between :/
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Re: I really don't understand ...
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We've seen this many times before
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Omae wa mo shindeiru
* Mortal Kombat's very existence causes paperwork to explode into a thousand tiny fragments *
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Re:
I still can't imagine this will go anywhere; I can't think of any Bandai/Namco games where an MK-style finishing move is used, and trademarking SF's non-finishing "finishing moves" seems like a very silly idea, but you know how this stuff goes...
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How to do it right
Instead of obtaining a trademark for Finishing Move, you should first trademark Finishing™ and then a trademark on Move™. This approach will give you much greater rights than trademarking the combined Finishing Move.
Sony, similarly you should first obtain a trademark for Let's™, and then a trademark Play™.
(Notice: The words in this post may be trademarks which are owned by their respective owners. Please™ do™ appropriate™ research™ before™ using™ in™ a™ potentially™ infringing™ way™ in™ your™ own™ posts™.)
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You mean to say that Street Fighter is Mortal Kombat sequel in the East?
I'm so confused. Good thing Bandai is coming to the rescue to dispel the confusion! /sarc
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I'd love to see Bandai try to argue that their company pre-dates porn.....
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No new IP...all it's talented designers and programmers long since jumped ship to rival companies.
Failing stock, collapsing internal structure, infighting and backstabbing and all it's major shareholders looking for a way to dump their shares......
All that will be left of Bandai/Namco (a once great software company) is a pathetic patent/IP troll within a few months...
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