In an sudden transfer, furnishings big Ikea has despatched a solo indie developer a stop and desist letter reviewed by Kotaku, demanding he make modifications to his unreleased survival horror recreation set in an Ikea-like furnishings retailer. Lawyers representing Ikea are claiming that the sport commits trademark infringement as a result of some press shops have drawn comparisons between their official model and the sport. The Swedish agency have given developer Jacob Shaw simply ten days to “change the game and remove all indicia associated with the famous Ikea stores.”
The Store Is Closed is an unreleased co-op survival recreation, that’s simply within the remaining week of a profitable Kickstarter marketing campaign that’s raised simply over $49,000. Created by a lone developer, going by the studio identify Ziggy, the sport describes itself as “being set in an infinite furniture store.”
“You’ll need to craft weapons, and build fortifications to survive the night,” continues the blurb. “Explore the underground SCP laboratories and build towers to the sky to find a way out.” You know, like in an actual Ikea? Crucially, nowhere in any of the sport’s promotional supplies, on its Steam, throughout its Kickstarter marketing campaign—nowhere—has the phrase “Ikea” ever been uttered.
Yet regardless of this, and regardless of the sport completely not being on sale wherever, Ikea’s New York attorneys, Fross Zelnick, have written to Shaw demanding that he completely change something within the recreation which may remind individuals of their model.
“Our client has learned that you are developing a video game, ‘The Store is Closed’,” the authorized letter explains, “which uses, without our client’s authorization, indicia associated with the famous IKEA stores.”
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It then goes on to list the infringing aspects of Shaw’s game.
“Your game uses a blue and yellow sign with a Scandinavian name on the store, a blue box-like building, yellow vertical stiped shirts identical to those worn by IKEA personnel, a gray path on the floor, furniture that looks like IKEA furniture, and product signage that looks like IKEA signage. All the foregoing immediately suggest that the game takes place in an IKEA store.”
Shaw gave me access to an early alpha build of the game, during which the “blue box-like building” and “blue and yellow sign” appear, in their totality, on the menu screen. After that, you don’t see them. There’s currently no branding at all in-game. The store is called “STYR.” Clearly a joke spelling of “STORE,” it is, by coincidence, a Swedish word, meaning “controls.” You know what’s not a Swedish word? “Ikea.” It’s the initials of its founder, a farm he grew up on, and a nearby village. Notably, stores like Tiffany have a trademark over the color that they use in their packaging, so in some ways Ikea isn’t coming completely out of left field here.
Then there are the claims that it has “furniture that looks like Ikea furniture.” But Shaw disputes that he designed any furniture with Ikea in mind. “I bought generic furniture asset packs to make this game,” Shaw said, meaning that this is furniture that can be featured in any game for a price. “I don’t know what that means.” The game does, however, have a grey path on the floor. It is also common for stores to have signage that tells the customer where to go.
Ikea’s argument hinges that the game infringes on their brand because press sites have made the association, rather than the game itself aligning naming Ikea.
One headline says, ‘Someone Has Made a Survival Horror Game Set In IKEA.’ Another headline says, ‘The Backrooms meets Sons of the Forest in new IKEA horror game.’
Those were the two headlines we could find, but it’s possible there are more. The letter also includes the subheadings of these stories as part of the evidence, going on to then state:
“Further, numerous comments by readers of these stories make an association with IKEA stores.”
Based on all this, Shaw has been told that his “unauthorized use of the IKEA indicia constitutes unfair competition and false advertising under Sections 43(a) of the U.S. Trademark Act, 15 U.S. C § 1125(a), and state unfair competition and false advertising laws.”
The lawyers then tell the developer, “You can of course easily make a video game set in a furniture store that does not look like, or suggest, an IKEA store.” The presumed game development experts go on to explain, “You can easily make changes to your game to avoid these problems, especially since you do not plan to release the game until 2024.”
They then immediately go on to inform Shaw that he has “ten working days of the date of this letter” to make all such changes, removing all their claimed “indicia.” Grey paths and all. The game is not up for sale yet.
Ikea is an organization that noticed revenues of $25.4 billion final 12 months, and Jacob Shaw is a few man within the UK who tried to lift £10,000 ($11,575) on Kickstarter, so Shaw says he has no alternative however to conform. While he’s looking for authorized recommendation, he’s sure he’ll should capitulate, given the prices concerned in difficult something.
“I was going to spend the last week of my Kickstarter preparing an update for all the new alpha testers,” Shaw advised Kotaku. “But now I’ve got to desperately revamp the entire look of the game so I don’t get sued.”
Clearly homeowners of logos have a authorized crucial to guard them, lest they lose them and their model turns into acknowledged as generic. Presumably that’s a part of Ikea’s motivation right here, as overreaching because it might sound to anybody not aware of trademark regulation. Hopefully merely eradicating the blue field constructing on the menu display screen ought to actually be sufficient to eliminate the remainder of this nonsense, not least as a result of the U.S. luxuriates in much more cheap allowances for spoof than the U.Ok.
We’ve contacted Ikea in each the U.S. (from the place the threats originate) and the U.Ok. (the place the sport relies), together with trademark specialists, to ask for remark, and can replace ought to they reply.
