The Wonderful 101 Plagued by Trademark Issues

By Jorge Ba-oh 18.07.2013 5

The Wonderful 101 Plagued by Trademark Issues on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

Documents that have recently surfaced from the US Patent and Trademark Office revolve around a dispute about The Wonderful 101 in the US.

Spotted by the folk at NeoGAF, Nintendo of America have had issues attempting to register a trademark for the upcoming Wii U release, The Wonderful 101. The reason being is that another company had previously registered a trademark for "The 101", creating a cause for confusion.

Nintendo recently replied to the office action, noting quite simply that while "the applicant's and registrant's marks share the term '101,' the marks in their entireties are substantially different in appearance. Most basically, Nintendo's mark, 'THE WONDERFUL 101,' consists of three elements, while registrant's mark, "THE 101," only consists of two."

Nintendo are adamant that consumers are "more inclined to focus on the first word", which in this case would be "wonderful".

The documents are currently being reviewed.

What are your thoughts on the two trademarks - could there be confusion?

Box art for The Wonderful 101
Developer

Platinum

Publisher

Nintendo

Genre

Action

Players

4

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  10/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  6/10 (1 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now    Also on Also on Nintendo eShop

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Comments

Rowtjs (guest) 18.07.2013#1

Will be a great game from the looks of it!
Who cares about a name...just name it "Dah Wonderful 678,18. You want this game bro" and you'd have a unique name, and a fun new game.

Canyarion is offline. Canyarion 19.07.2013#2

A few weeks ago I was standing on the Taipei 101. Now I'm not sure if I was standing on the second-highest building in the world, or some in-development computer game...

Seriously, the Taipei 101 was so impressive. Looking down made the city look like Sim City. But without bugs and having to be online.

 
Vorash Kadan 20.07.2013#3

Wow people are just too cheap to EARN their money & just want to make a living sueing people.....I hate court politics/business.

It is not wise to speak on subjects you do not know all facts about, nor is it smart to judge a game based on looks alone. PSN: Nintendo_Gamer 3DS: 4296-3029-7422
 
Darkflame is offline. Darkflame 21.07.2013#4

No one is sueing anyone.

Its simply the trademark office doing there job and making sure nothing is too similiar before its approved - something the patent office has long since forgotten.

Making sure only unique stuff gets approved actualy reduces sueing, so its in many ways a good thing.

That said, imho, it all hinges on if "101" is a videogame or software related. If it is, fair enough, if it isnt then clearly theres room for both.

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Richard (guest) 22.07.2013#5

Hmmm.... As noted it depends what the 'The 101' has been registered to doesn't it?

If 'The 101' is a computer/Video game then yes there could be cause for confusion, if its a car, plane, graphics card, cleaning product etc. etc. then not.

Most likely it a case of patent/ trade mark trolling by someone who never had an original idea in their life.

In either case simply calling 'The Wonderful 101' ''The Wonderful One Hundred and One' should be enough to remove any confusion.

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