Stoic has responded saying that, while ”King.com claims they’re not attempting to prevent us from using The Banner Saga,” their legal opposition filing against them remains.
The indie team at Stoic plan to continue their development of further chapters to The Banner Saga, but right now Stoic can’t lay claim to the name of their IP because of King.
”They’ve blocked our trademark and extended the deadline for the opposition twice so that we are unable to have the rights to the name,” explained Alex Thomas from Stoic, speaking with Polygon. ”Essentially, we are not allowed to own the name ‘The Banner Saga’ for our game about a viking epic, because King.com says they have claimed rights to the noun ‘saga,’ which means ‘a viking epic,’ forever more in the realm of games.”
Despite the legal tantrum by King.com over the word ‘Saga’, Stoic plans to move forward with their Viking RPG.
”Two years ago, the three of us at Stoic set out to make an epic viking game: The Banner Saga,” read a statement from Stoic. ”We did, and people loved it, so we’re making another one. We won’t make a viking saga without the word Saga, and we don’t appreciate anyone telling us we can’t.”
”King.com claims they’re not attempting to prevent us from using The Banner Saga, and yet their legal opposition to our trademark filing remains. We’re humbled by the outpouring of support and honored to have others stand with us for the right to their own Saga. We just want to make great games.”
King.com claim that their filing this trademark opposition is to ‘protect against future copycats’ who would use Saga in their name, but actually acknowledge that it’s extremely unlikely The Banner Saga poses a threat. Under the filing they cite that Stoic’s use of Saga leads to confusion among consumers, and therefore harms King.com’s IP.
Are we all looking forward to slaying the evil tyrant King Candy in The Banner Saga’s second chapter?
