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The James Pond games were a series of platformer parodies from the 1990s, most notable for the second one’s demo accidentally including the entire game if you used the level-select cheat code. Oops!
Nowadays, the rights to James Pond are co-owned by Gameware and System 3. The latter company decided to finally trademark the name in the UK last year, filing an application that would cover its use in categories including “Computer and electronic game programs” as well as “Toys, games and playthings” and “Clothing; footwear; headgear; sweatshirts; t-shirts; caps; jackets.”
The owners of the James Bond trademark and copyright, Danjaq LLC, filed an opposition in response. As reported by the World Trademark Review Journal via Time Extension, Danjaq opposed a similar trademark application in 2012—with the European Intellectual Property Office on that occasion, rather than the UK one—and that application ended up being rejected. In the UK, trademarks of parodies aren’t protected as they are under US law, so it seems like a long shot to try for a UK trademark after failing to secure a European one.
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