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Riot Games has filed a lawsuit against the esports organisation Riot Squad for trademark infringement over the identical word in its name (via GamesIndustry.biz).
On Monday, the lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, stating that Riot Squad had consciously chosen the word ‘Riot’ so that it would seem to belong to the League of Legends developer. Riot Games doesn’t like how the word ‘Riot’ is written and designed on Riot Squad merchandise, and deemed the choice to have ‘caused and, unless restrained by [a] Court, will continue to cause Riot [Games] to suffer great and irreparable damage and injury.’
Furthermore, the lawsuit claims that the esports group has ‘unfairly and unlawfully adopted and exploited the Riot brand name in connection with its marketing, advertising, and promotion of a nascent esports organisation.’ Riot Squad was formed earlier this year and calls itself a ‘character first, talent second led organization’ driven ‘by gamers, for gamers.’ Riot Games finds this problematic, too.
Not only are the two companies jostling for the same space in the same industry, but the developer said that ‘Riot Squad's apparent mission statement — to create an esports organisation “by gamers, for gamers” — mirrors the guiding principle on which Riot [Games] was founded more than a decade ago, and with which it continues to be identified to this day.’
In response, Riot Games has requested compensatory and punitive damages, and that the esports organisation indemnifies all profits received from the use of the name, pays the costs of the lawsuit, and removes ‘all materials that bear the infringing marks.’
