[Update 2]: The United States Patent and Trademark Office has reinstated the Watch Dogs trademark. In the granted petition, the government states that "On February 1, 2014, a Request for Express Abandonment was purportedly filed through TEAS by Yves Guillemot, petitioner’s Chief Executive Officer." Thankfully for Ubisoft, the USPTO has quickly accepted their petition that the abandonement is fraudulent. Here's hoping Watch Dogs arrives sooner rather than later.
[Update]: Reader COMaestro wrote to inform us that an attorney for Ubisoft Entertainment has filed for a repeal of the trade mark abandonment. The appeal states that the original abandonment was signed by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, but that no signing ever took place. Essentially Ubisoft is claiming that the abndonment was filed in error, whether by Ubisoft or by someone outside the organization.
Mr. Guillemot, however, did not sign the Request for Express Abandonment, nor did Ubisoft Entertainment file the Request for Express Abandonment. The Request for Express Abandonment is fraudulent and was not filed by Ubisoft Entertainment or its representative.
We will continue to follow this story and update when possible.
[Original]:While we were blown away by Ubisoft's surprise reveal of Watch Dogs two years ago, the publisher has dropped the trademark filed for Watch Dogs "game software and electronic game programs" with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The listing, IC 009 US 021 023 026 036 038 G&S was originally for Watch Dogs, and Ubisoft even filed additional trademarks for apparel and more. The trademark for the game software dubbed Watch Dogs was abandoned on February 1st, 2014.
While this news comes after a lengthy Watch Dogs delay and some less than stellar buzz about the title, I don't think Ubisoft has entirely abandoned what we've seen of the modern-day open-world communication-disruption action game.
In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Watch Dogs magically transformed into a modern day Assassin's Creed, complete with multiplayer lobbies, a narrative tied to Desmond Miles, and the signature open-world gameplay shared between both titles.
During development, we got to see Watch Dogs in action. We watched as the main character explored the open-world Chicago and took out CtOS junction points in order to hack the surrounding infrastructure and spy on average citizen NPCs around the world.
With gameplay and themes so closely related, it makes perfect sense that Ubisoft could have shown off Watch Dogs to tease fans and critics with the future of Assassin's Creed, a stunning and modern open-world adventure where Assassins don't just work together to complete objectives, but that they have rivalries and more tricks up their sleeves than ever before.
I don't want to get too excited but doesn't it all just make way too much sense? Ubisoft has said previously that Watch Dogs would scratch the itch gamers have for a modern day Assassin's Creed. Was that a cheeky way of mentioning the future of these two games? Watch Dogs was most recently rumored to launch April 25th.
