Futuremark Gives Lame Excuse for Trying to Trademark "Pwnage"

You may recall a little ridiculous piece of news not too long ago that involved Finnish software developer, Futuremark, trying to trademark the word “pwnage.” Well, now the company has come forth to explain their reasons for wanting to hold the rights to the term. Their explanation is, well, lame:

Fellow gamers,

Our purpose in filing for trademark on the name “Pwnage” is not to charge money or stop people from using the expression. That’s not what a trademark is for. Instead, we want to protect ourselves from squatters (or what I call campers) - people looking to trademark the name on false pretenses, just to make a claim against Futuremark Games Studio for its use.

Jukka Mäkinen, Executive Producer, Futuremark Games Studio

Oh, so they just want to trademark the name so nobody else can trademark it. That makes sense if they created the term and had some significant ties to it. What’s that, you say? The word “pwnage” has nothing to do with Futuremark, so it’s ridiculous for them to try and stop anyone else from using the term in any form of media? Well then…touche.

http://news.filefront.com/category/gamer-life/game-related-laws/