Rockstar games have launched legal action against the BBC for trademark infringement against the BBC’s one-off film about the rise of Rockstar.
The 90 minute drama entitled Game Changer, has attracted the lead of Daniel Radcliffe to play Rockstar co-founder Sam Houser and was about set for release later this year. However Take 2 who owns Rockstar has launched legal action against the film in its current form. Rockstar released the following statement.
Take-Two Interactive has filed suit against the BBC for trademark infringement based on their movie currently titled ‘Game Changer’ as it relates to Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto video game series.
While holders of the trademarks referenced in the film title and its promotion, Rockstar Games has had no involvement with this project. Our goal is to ensure that our trademarks are not misused in the BBC’s pursuit of an unofficial depiction of purported events related to Rockstar Games.
We have attempted multiple times to resolve this matter with the BBC without any meaningful resolution. It is our obligation to protect our intellectual property and unfortunately in this case litigation was necessary.
The BBC have yet to release a statement surrounding the matter., but when asked what Game Changer was about, they had the following statement
It tells the story of “arguably the greatest British coding success story since Bletchley Park”.
“Its triumph was down to a bunch of British gaming geniuses who had known each other since their school days, and at the heart of it all was GTA’s creative mastermind, Sam Houser. In autumn 2013 its latest iteration – GTA 5 – earned $1bn in its first three days, becoming the fastest selling entertainment product in history.”
What will come of the law suit is yet to be seen. Hopefully Game Changer will still be released latter this year. Let us know what you think of the latest developments and if you are looking forward to the documentary?
