MechWarrior reboot could be caught in trademark dispute

Nooooooooooooooo! Shackle thine legal-hounds, and bring forth Mechassault without the sucketh of Lone Wolf!

So, their argument is that Battletech from 1984 is copying Robotech from 1985, when it's evident that both series have fairly similar robots to begin with...

This will end well.

In response to this claim, Dissonance Iron says "Robotech can suck my balls."

Harmony Gold believes they have the rights to all things Macross in the US. And since Battletech shamelessly leaches some Macross mecha designs, Harmony Gold sends in the lawyers. So perhaps if HG loses this legal fight, perhaps that'll pave the way for more proper Macross stuff licensed in the US.

Does anyone have a link to the proper trailer? All I can find is a teaser trailer that involves one robot foot.

This is not a new dispute. The Marauder, Warhammer, Phoenix Hawk, Rifleman and a few other IS mechs have been in contention for years. That is why they were removed after Mechwarrior 2. I think they were pulled from Ghot bear legacy as well, but were NOT there in Mercenaries for that very reason. If you go back and look at Robotech series one, you will see that there is NO difference between the Phoenix Hawk and the batteloid mode of a Veritec. Kyron (one of the Zentradi) pilots a mech that looks VERY close to a Marauder. In various scenes you will see mechs on the SDF1 that look like the rifelman, Warhammer, Rhino and others. If I remember correctly, FASA had to pull the designs from its pen and paper games as well and I know that some book covers from he Mechwarrior and Battletech novels had to be changed when reprinted and the mech diagrams in the back had to be removed. Decision at Thundar Rift is a great example. I have a copy with a Marauder on the cover and a spec sheet on it in the back, but later printings have a different cover and no spec sheet, though the mech is still referred to and described the same in the book. Guess the image is copyrighted, and not its description.

SUPPRESS THE OPPOSITION

If lawyers were doctors, we would have cured every known diseases by now.

Can't imagine something as piddly as this will stop the game.

The mechs in the video look like the mechs from all of the other games. This isn't some project phoenix type of units, this seems like Robotech trying to stay relevant or possibly HG is just trying to cash in on something good.

Thank you!

That actually looks pretty fun.

The trailer featured a Warhammer, which is an Excalibur in the Robotech Universe. I hope they work out the rights, because I grew up on these mechs in the tabletop version and was pretty excited to see them in a game.

They removed the mechs in question from lots of Battletech games/print before, they can just do it again.

They mechs that are infringing on copyright issues aren't popular anyhow.

Sounds like another cash grab by non-gamers again.. ...sigh.

The MACROSS series is having a revival in Japan and one reason the US is not hearing anything about this, is HG wanting to put their greedy fingers in the pie...

Aren't we lucky Tolkien and his heirs did not squash all of the derivative works we've had since then.

Harmony Gold is in the right here. Catalyst studios talked about the issue with some of the original 'mechs at http://battletech.catalystgamelabs.com/2009/08/10/sometimes-things-just-dont-go-as-we-want-them-to/

I think it is pretty jerky for them to demand the trailers be pulled, but I guess they don't want to create the impression you can use their materials in the new game.

EarthSiege 2 was awesome.

This reminds me that we could use a really great Robotech game.

The 'Mechs Harmony Gold gets its panties in a bunch about are referred to in Battletech circles as "The Unseen". FASA licensed a number of designs from various anime in the early 80s which didn't yet have distribution rights in the US (Macross, Dougram, and others). In 1985 Harmony Gold came along and "created" Robotech by combining a couple of different mecha series including Macross and redubbing them. Harmony Gold considered themselves the sole distributors of the Macross designs they licensed from Studio Nue. In the early 90s Playmates licensed some Robotech designs to release alongside their Exo Squad toys. Harmony Gold and Playmates went after FASA for the Studio Nue designs (the Macross designs) they licensed. FASA lost and could no longer publish images of the 12 Unseen 'Mechs. All post-1996 FASA products could refer to the Unseen but not display their imagery. This included miniatures but also video game licenses like the MechWarrior series.

Harmony Gold has come back out of obscurity to shit on another Battletech franchise owner. Catalyst Game Labs (who owns Battletech now) thought they would be able to publish images of the Unseen again. Harmony Gold shit all over that idea and is now going after other Battletech licensees. Hopefully Piranha does what Catalyst did with it's "Project Phoenix" and release the Unseen designs with new artwork which is similar but doesn't fall under the Harmony Gold lawsuit.

Harmony Gold can seriously fuck off.

I know the guys that make the miniature tabletop game Wizkids/Catalyst settled a rights dispute with them that allowed the to publish certain mechs that resembled robotech mechs. I know another thing to is that Harmony Gold never offically had the rights to robotech in the US and their was legal dispute over that a few years back where Harmony Gold lost that case.

The year and setting of this game before the arrival of the clans only put a few mechs in dispute but these were the same mechs that wizkids just one a legal battle over. The mechs were called the Unseen because they were not allowed to be manufactured in the miniature line http://www.classicbattletech.com/index.php?action=news saddly the news link is down to that particular article.

If they got the mechs back in the table top game I see them coming back in the video games.

Catalyst did when the legal battle for the unseen

Would help if all copy right becomes public domain after 10 years.... so people would focus on making new and not sweat over older stuff...and protecting older stuff....and stagnating everything to protect old stuff....

I can't believe after all these years they are still throwing a fit over some robot designs. If they were making money off them, and actively using them in their own games, or making toys with them I wouldn't have a problem with it, but the fact is, they have been doing nothing with them. Why don't they just license them out to whoever is publishing this Battletech game for a REASONABLE amount that both parties can agree to? Even if its a piddly amount, something is better than nothing.

WiredKnight
Then because of your own personal greed you allow theCP owners society to rape both consumers and artists alike.

CP should be limited to 10 years and then trade mark 5-10 based off what was last sold,basically CP your work in a broader sense TM the characters and unique items,places,ect, if you can not sell anything in 5-10 years it becomes public domain.But any new material you make off it as the original creator can be CP/TM'd for another limited duration.

Basically if you do not invest the effort to make new whatever was sold becomes something anyone with a entrepreneurs sense can resale it but only a few would scrape a living off it.


The current system allows organizations and single person entities to own to much that conglomeration of power dose more damage than good to both consumers and artists, even you have to admit that.

Allowing the system more than decade to fully abuse a CP is not a good thing IMO.

Pip
Because harmony gold is a CP troll. Thats how they stay in money.... and managed to keep any new macross from becoming domesticated.....

You might find this informative:

http://www.terrania.us/journal/2009/09/harmony-gold-vs-battletech-second.html

Harmony Gold blows, in general.