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CD Projekt RED, the studio behind the exceedingly popular series of Witcher games, has a trademark on the word ‘cyberpunk’, but is being pretty chill about it.
CD Projekt is currently working on a game called Cyberpunk 2077. It’s based on the pen and paper tabletop RPG Cyberpunk, which has been around since the 80s. This goes a long way to explaining the why behind the trademark. But people pointed out that ‘cyberpunk’ is, in fact, a word used more commonly than in reference to the game: it’s an entire genre. CD Projekt responded quite openly.
In an explanation posted on Twitter, CD Projekt said the trademark move is mainly a bit of self defense: ‘The reason for our registration is to project us from unlawful actions of unfair competitors.’
This will protect CD Projekt if it decides to make sequels or DLC for Cyberpunk 2077. If it didn’t have the trademark, someone else could nab it and prevent a sequel being called something easy like Cyberpunk 2078.
If you want to use the word ‘cyberpunk’ in your own video game title, chances are CD Projekt will leave you to it — unless it’s likely to cause confusion.
CD Projekt said, ‘The role of the trademark is only to protect words, signs used as titles of games, names of products, etc. If someone names their game: “JOHN SMITH: ADVENTURES IN A CYBERPUNK DISTOPIAN SOCIETY” or “20 SHORT VIDEO GAMES SET IN CYBERPUNK WORLDS” none of them should be treated as an infringement of our rights.’
You can see the whole statement here.
Cyberpunk 2077 is currently slated for release ‘when it’s ready’.
