'Brink' trademarked by Bethesda parent company

by Alexander Sliwinski { May 20th 2009 at 6:45PM }

ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks (Fallout 3, Oblivion), has applied to trademark "Brink" for computer game software, reports Gamespot.

Beyond that, we're in total speculation territory. Brink could be the secret Wii game, the E3 reveal from Splash Damage or that MMO the company is working on. Bethesda's got a buffet full of projects right now. We've contacted the company for comment.

Tags: bethesda, bethesda-softworks, brink, trademark, zenimax-media

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

thisissparta @ May 20th 2009 7:01PM

feels good man

Ryan @ May 20th 2009 7:16PM

Adaptation?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Pp9FSMjGeLc/R5QRSOEcaRI/AAAAAAAAAFU/dWzflvpEwyM/s400/Disney_-_Brink.jpg

Cox Attack @ May 20th 2009 7:25PM

Finally! A game where I can be a soul skater!

Arthur @ May 20th 2009 9:36PM

I'M SO GLAD SOMEONE ELSE MADE THIS REFERENCE!

RedRose @ May 20th 2009 7:22PM

Brink is a German and Dutch surname and means "village green". It is also thought to have originally meant "hill with green grass."

Maybe a game of villages and civilisations like fallout with a wii twist...which is quite literal =]

Bones3D @ May 20th 2009 7:24PM

What a weird name for a game...

Perhaps it's a game about the weekly newsletter TV show on the Science channel with the same name.

- http://science.discovery.com/brink/brink.html

LegendaryRedass @ May 20th 2009 7:31PM

Zenimax has their hands in a lot of stuff. I doubt this has to do with what Beth is doing. Besides, why would they trademark something after development started?

ssuk @ May 20th 2009 7:56PM

Well, because software development takes years and games are under "Working Titles" until they fully commit to a title. It costs money to trademark something and a game is produced mostly in secrecy with strict NDA's attached. This means any unique products a company makes are kept hush from competitors as even the slightest hint of a trademark by say; Activison which has even a remotely music-ish sounding title leads to rampant "OMG NEW * HERO FRANCHISE?" speculation.

Of course, it all depends on the developer. Some do it differently and actually trademark something just at the start of development, but often video games go through so many changes from start to finish that it would be foolish to fully commit to one name from the get-go. I believe Left 4 Dead was originally titled "Terror Strike" or something similar, if Valve had trademarked "Terror Strike" initially, it would have been unlikely they'd have changed the title to Left 4 Dead later. I suppose simply what I'm trying to say is: "Keep your options open", by trademarking a title early, you're compromising choice later down the line. However, there is the risk someone else could go and trademark the same name while you diddle-dally. However, it's very unlikely in most cases.