Medabots trademark is in dispute between an NFT game developer and Imagineer

Publication date of the original Japanese article: 2021-11-10 20:04 (JST)
Translated by. Nick Mosier

On November 10, Imagineer announced that their objection to an order of provisional measures from the Alicante Commercial Court regarding their trademark of the Medabots series has been fully recognized. Another party had registered a trademark of the same name and claimed trademark infringement against Imagineer.

Imagineer is a media company that also has its hands in video games and has recently released titles such as the Fit Boxing series for the Nintendo Switch. They are also the owners of Medabots, a series about robots that has spanned numerous genres and game consoles.

In January of this year, Imagineer reported that they were ordered to temporarily stop selling Medabots related video game content in the EU by the Alicante Commercial Court due to infringement of a trademark that was registered there. The trademark infringement claim was made by Kevin Comadrán, the owner of the said trademark. In November of 2020, Imagineer filed a formal objection requesting that the order be withdrawn.

Comadrán has experience both within and outside the game industry as an economist and is the representative of the Medabots company, which is developing a robot game that’s also called Medabots. The game is said to feature an original cryptocurrency called “medacoin” and make use of NFT item mechanics. Development started in 2017, and the game is scheduled to release on December 25 of this year. Of course, Imagineer has nothing to do with it.

In February of 2018, Comadrán filed for the “Medabots” trademark and appears to have registered it in August of the same year. Meanwhile, Imagineer also holds the “Medabots” trademark in the EU. They applied for many uses including video games, which is where we see an overlap between the two parties. This is likely where Comadrán claimed trademark infringement. Comadrán’s side also filed a lawsuit against Imagineer to halt sales of relevant titles.

In response to this, Imagineer has asserted that there is no truth behind the trademark infringement claim and filed an objection seeking to withdraw the order of provisional measures. And based on the fact that they’ve released numerous Medabots titles overseas since 2002, they have filed a countersuit to either change ownership over to Imagineer or invalidate Comadrán’s trademark.

On February 1, 2021, the Alicante Court of Appeal (EU Trademark Court) recognized Imagineer’s formal objection in its entirety. Comadrán’s side filed an appeal, but it was dismissed on September 21, and the court ruled in favor of Imagineer to settle the case.

However, the lawsuit to stop the sales of Imagineer’s games is still ongoing. It’s not a foregone conclusion, but the recent trademark decision may work in their favor.