These days, this kind of thing is so routine it almost doesn't seem worth reporting about, even Alex aludes to the fact that various properties get renamed in other regions.  Just give the (Trenched) game a different name already and move on.
 
Examples of games that were renamed (for whatever reason). 

@bengino said:

@Vorbis: because people are greedy and would gladly trademark every word in the world in order to make a quick buck. I personally think Trademarks should cover only what it's CURRENT use is for and not what MIGHT eventually happen.

You can't trademark something after it's already out; that makes no sense. Then you run into dumb situations like this. You have to trademark it before you do it and prove you have intent. Everyone is acting like this guy is an asshole for not bending over and giving up his trademark to a property he is currently using and plans to continue using just because they want to see a video game that could be easily rebranded release in Europe. It's stupid.

The guy had to already have been planning the electronic version. You don't just get a developer and a publisher overnight, especially when you're embroiled in a legal mess. iOS versions of board games have been pretty big lately, so it's not far-fetched to think that the guy already planned this game. It might be in the very early stages, but now his hand is forced into revealing it because he needs to prove that yeah, he intends to continue using the Trench trademark in the future.

Just call the game "Drenched" or "Untold Tales: Super Mechs of the Great World War" or "Super Mech Fighting Television Battlefield 120%" or whatever and release the fucking game already before it loses all relevance.

What is so "utterly baffling" about this news, Alex? These things happen all the time. No need to make this so dramatic. Also it's disgusting to see the typical gamer reaction of attacking this guy for following the proper rules of trademarking. The delay would have probably been averted altogether if Microsoft had checked if the name had been taken already. He has also an existing product and plans to expand the brand unlike Tim Langdell of Edge Games.

"Doublefine's Trenched"

Done. Battle over. Move on.

Not owning a 360 makes this a non-issue for me in either case, but I am curious what other name they could pick for the game ('cause that is what they should be doing).

@bengino said:

The guy is using it for a board game that he eventually wants to get to platforms... if the game flops (which i think it will) why would any company want to sink money in what could become a pit? Truthfully, a game should become well known before it gets planned as an electronic version. In any case i am not saying that the guy needs to fold like a 2$ ho, but the reality is the guy will probably never go anywhere with any versions of his game.

So it's not his right to try and succeed with his established brand just so Double Fine, who caused this whole mess with their complete lack of quick research, won't have to change the name of their game in one territory?

I went to the guy's website and poked around a bit (my own 5 minutes of quick research) and the guy's clearly put some thought and time into this game. It's a pretty unique concept that I found surprisingly cool, and from his descriptions, it sounds like he started developing it in 2009, well before Trenched was ever getting made. Honestly, I find it a little weird that they both deal with WWI and have such similar names. At this point, I'd be more interested in finding out where, exactly, Double Fine got the idea for Trenched.

Everyone's calling him a dick and an asshole for protecting his trademark, or for even making one in the first place, which is completely hypocritical considering everyone just wants to let Double Fine trademark the same word.

People need to stop vilifying this guy and start taking Double Fine and Microsoft to task for a) not doing their jobs and avoiding this whole mess, and b) not owning up to the fact that they fucked up and just rename the game to something more creative than "Trenched," which is a bad name anyway.

Is this an EU thing? Because I had no problem purchasing Trenched right when it came out.

Oh, and I happened to be born in Norway.

Anyone else just really tired of people/companies just being able to trademark words? Trench was a word long before some board game company named a game after it, and now it's a word that will forever require ownership or licensing to actually be used in anything except general conversation.

I don't even blame this Monteiro, they're just following in the footstep of other companies LIKE MICROSOFT who have made it commonplace to take words and make them off limits to anyone else.

I'm not rooting for anyone here except Doublefine, who are obviously losing money as long as Europeans aren't buying their game.

@LordCmdrStryker: It is my mistake for incorrectly mentioning copyright when in fact the argument revolves around trademark. If I recall correctly, there have been several arguments relating to copyrighting and protecting board games and other game mechanics in the U.S. (Scrabble comes to mind as a major player). This is what immediately crossed my mind, although I realize that it does not apply here.

That being said, I am quite aware of the definition of trench and the fact that a capital T looks different than a lowercase t. However, you make no compelling argument about why his trademark on "Trench" and its derivations does not apply here. Had the game been named, "Down in the Trenches," then it is very likely it would be a non-issue, as that title clearly refers to a location, likely on a battlefield. Simply calling a game Trenched does not clearly differentiate it from a strategy game called Trench. If you have a vast knowledge of international copyright/trademark/IP law and know something that I don't, please correct me. Patronizing links to Merriam-Webster and Wikipedia need not be included.

"A Wargame Full of Portuguese Creativity" nuff said

If y'all were not so eagar to play the game already how many would take the side of Microsoft against the little guy.  Three ways Microsoft could settl this very quickly. 
 
1. Research the trademark beforehand (okay, so time for this has passed). 
 
2. Re brand the game already. 
 
3. Take the money you were going to use to re brand and give it to the pissant little board game maker.  I very much doubt it would take much. 
 
My guess, with so little actual info available, is that MS fucked up with their due diligence and instead of taking the hit and settling with the trademark holder they tried to bully him and he done gone and got himself a lawyer calling their bluff.

Europeans are dicks

@DudeOlav said:

Is this an EU thing? Because I had no problem purchasing Trenched right when it came out.

Oh, and I happened to be born in Norway.

Yep, it's EU. People just don't seem to know the difference between EU and Europe.

This sounds...

Completely reasonable.

Get over it; Microsoft and DoubleFine fucked up with their laughable handling of this.

Trënched.

Re-Brand: enTRENCHED

Problem solved.

Why can't they just go ahead and keep it named Trenched, get rid of the derivative copyright argument for Trench. 
 
I'm sure both parties would be able to go on living, one with a product named Trench, and the other named Trenched. Its been fine in the past.

Someone go fuck this guy in the ear.

@Bakumatsu said:

Sure. Because a dispute between a guy with a board game and some guys that made a videogame is on the same league that an international debt that has been costing thousands of jobs to the portuguese people and causing cuts in the subsidies that we receive. A debt that we have because of bad political decisions that led to spend money that we didn't have. So, unless you're portuguese don't talk of things you don't know.

Wow, sounds like humor isn't your thing over there. Keep on truckin'!

Just call it Drenched and release it already.

Trunched

@onan said:

"Doublefine's Trenched"

Done. Battle over. Move on.

This.

They should call it Psychonauts 2.

Is this an EU thing? Because I had no problem purchasing Trenched right when it came out.

Oh, and I happened to be born in Norway.

I think the worst thing about this is that I'm beginning to lose interest in getting the game now. After all this legal bullshit is through the game will have been out a long time before it comes out in the UK. If it does, that is.

The puns, they burn.

The word "trench" should not be trademarkable. Just like the word "edge" should not be. This is why most of the time you will see games that use a common word but they change the spelling to something unique so they can trademark it. But just trademarking any random word is stupid. Hey I'm going to trademark the work "Fight" and now no one anywhere can use it. It's ridiculous.

I don't know how anyone can read this story and think this dude is anywhere near in the wrong. This one dude had the foresight that neither Doublefine or Microsoft had, and now he owns it. He wins! That's fucking it. Don't be a baby about it. The name is not even that good to begin with.
And unless MS intends to just throw a bunch of money at him for what he owns, they should do one of two things:
1. Acknowledge their incompetence, rebrand it and carry on. 
2. Acknowledge their incompetence, don't rebrand it and don't hit the European market.

Entrenched is a better name anyway. Just call it that.

Double Fine should hire European assassins to murder that guy.

I'm drafting an email to him right now.

@l4wd0g said:

Europeans are dicks

Not all of us but yeah.

@ryanwho said:

Entrenched is a better name anyway. Just call it that.

Hear hear.

Christ, what an asshole.

Microsoft are dicks. Did we forget the E3 podcast already?

@McGhee_the_Insomniac said:

The word "trench" should not be trademarkable. Just like the word "edge" should not be. This is why most of the time you will see games that use a common word but they change the spelling to something unique so they can trademark it. But just trademarking any random word is stupid. Hey I'm going to trademark the work "Fight" and now no one anywhere can use it. It's ridiculous.

You can't just trademark a word randomly. That's what people aren't getting. You have to be able to prove that you have intent to actually use that trademark. This guy proved that two years ago when he developed his board game. Double Fine and Microsoft couldn't be bothered to do their jobs and check existing trademarks before they named the game, nor did they check until they were just about to release it.

Trademarks are important, otherwise you'd have twenty different properties coming out all named "Halo" or "Google" or "Star Wars" or whatever and it'd all be a huge fucking mess and all brands would be hurt by it. Just because Double Fine and Microsoft were this lazy doesn't mean the process of trademarking a word is ridiculous.

This just continues to make me feel like trademark and copyright laws are becoming more and more outdated for modern times.  Reminds me of when I first found out that they have to refer to Jazz from Transformers as Autobot Jazz sometimes due to trademarking.  
 
I do wonder if there's some reason why they haven't simply rebranded Trenched yet though.  Also, Drenched would not work for a new name, that joke only applies to pretty much Giant Bomb fans.  I'd be curious to know what all words exactly are covered by his trademark though.

What ? i downloaded the game on day 1 and i live in Norway. I hope i don't loose the game or something now ..

@Aishan said:

@eezo: It's an EU trademark, it doesn't apply to Norway.

How does that even make sense? Norway is in Europe..

@Aishan said:

@eezo: It's an EU trademark, it doesn't apply to Norway.

How does that even make sense? Norway is in Europe..

@eezo said:

@Aishan said:

@eezo: It's an EU trademark, it doesn't apply to Norway.

How does that even make sense? Norway is in Europe..

Norway isn't a member of the EU.

Couldn't they make Trenched a subtitle or something, kind of like how the first Freespace game was titled Conflict: Freespace - The Great War in Europe (edit: the Descent title was US)?

Like MONOVISION WAVE DEFENSE: TRENCHED or something.

I wonder who holds the trademark for 'Nocturne' in Europe, SMT3 goes by the name of Lucifer's Call here. That's also a pretty generic-ass word to take issue with but what can you do.

Trenched: Reckoning.

So, he trademarked a word, hasn't actually made any product, and is pissy that nobody cared that he trademarked it till now?  Just make a NA account if you really wanted to play the game.

@sins_of_mosin said:

So, he trademarked a word, hasn't actually made any product, and is pissy that nobody cared that he trademarked it till now? Just make a NA account if you really wanted to play the game.

Go to his website.

@Aishan said:

@eezo said:

@Aishan said:

@eezo: It's an EU trademark, it doesn't apply to Norway.

How does that even make sense? Norway is in Europe..

It's not in the EU, though.

oh rite, well thats just my luck then! :D

Ugh. Times like this the governments of the world need to nut up and say "THE WORD IS FUCKING TRENCH YOU CAN'T OWN IT NOW FUCK OFF CHILD."

@Liber said:

Double Fine should hire European assassins to murder that guy.

This is also an option.