Activision trademarks Guitar Villain and Drum Villain

A pair of trademark application filings have revealed possible Guitar Hero spin-off games.

Uncovered by GameSpot, The United States Patent and Trademark Office Web site shows two applications from Activision for Drum Villain and Guitar Villain.

Each application states that the names are intended for computer game software across a variety of forms, including downloadable games, games sold with controllers, arcade games, and games sold with electronic guitars. Also mentioned are online leaderboards which would track player high scores.

The Guitar Villain trademark was filed first, on November 29, 2006, and was shortly followed by Drum Villain on December 1. It's too early to assume the filings mean new titles are on the way any time soon, but it's interesting nonetheless. Before its acquisition by Activision in 2006, RedOctane filed a set of Trademark applications which are also yet to see the light of day: Keyboard Hero, Drum Hero and Band Hero.

A RedOctane rep told GameSpot that the publisher is "currently focused on the production of Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360," and refused to comment on future projects.