Diamond Select Bought the Battle Beasts Trademark?
Reading this thread at the October Toys forum I find:
FeedtheDead: From what we were told at the DST panel, they bought the rights to the name only, not the concept of elemental rub-signs, or previous characters.
Interesting. I’m hoping that someone out there has audio or video from the panel where this is reported to have happened, because I’d like to know if Diamond Select Toys actually paid someone for the Battle Beasts trademark and, if they did, who they paid. The rumors I had heard came down to the trademark was open so they grabbed it, not that they approached an older rights holder and used a company name trademark registration to pay for the trademark.
A US trademark search shows one live and three dead uses of Battle Beast(s):
- The Diamond Select Toys trademark.The only live item listed.
- Tomy trademark from 2007.Listed as abandoned.
- 7th Level, a game company. There’s was no “s” on Beast. You can read about their game on Wikipedia.
- The Hasbro trademark from the eighties. Listed as cancelled.
If DST paid someone for the trademark I’d love to find out who they paid and what, exactly, they bought. It strikes me as very odd to pay someone for a title that was no longer trademarked but to not also pay for the character designs and the most distinctive element of the toy: the rub signs.
So if anyone has a link to audio or video from that Diamond Select Panel at C2E2 last weekend I’d appreciate the link. I want to hear exactly how the DST rep described the situation.
UPDATE: See the comments in this post at Poe’s site for confirmation that all DST was snag an abandoned trademark. Thanks, all, for the input!
Related articles
- IDW’s New Battle Beasts Comic Announced (battlegrip.com)
- Spotted Online – Takara’s Beast Saga Brings Battle Beasts to Life (battlegrip.com)
- Spotted Online – Interview With Battle Beasts Comic Writer Bobby Curnow (battlegrip.com)
DST paid to protect the trademark on the Battle Beasts name as Hasbro didn’t used it for years so they lost the ownership of the name. Just search for “Battle Beasts” at http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=searchss&state=4008:ba1isp.1.1 and you will have all informations needed.
@Sylvain – Yeah, I’ve got links to the four search results in the post. I am suspecting the word “bought” was used when that’s not what happened. That’s why I’d love to find a recording from the panel.
Maybe it’s me, but I’m hoping the new line looks a lot better than the photos I’ve seen of the translucent red one. I was hoping for a resurrection of the classic not some new thing.
The look and feel of the classic is what drew me to it in the first place.
@Xianricca – Take a look at Poe’s post on the subject. This is definitely something new and not the old stuff.
I was at the panel and also picked up the comic and figure (review coming soon!) and although no photo or video was allowed, I think folks are getting caught up in semantics. Diamond has a name that they spent money on, either via trademark or whatnot. They didn’t purchase any rights and their concept is wholly original. It’s just similar enough to cause confusion, no doubt intentionally.
It’d be like me securing the name muscle and then making little pink rubber men, but not Kinnikuman in any fashion. It’s brilliant on DST’s part, because folks are interested in a new line for nostalgia reasons.
@Newt – The word “bought” implies that someone was paid for the rights to the name. Having worked with buying IPs in the past I keyed on that word immediately, but it sounds like the original info around the line — DST filed for the trademark when it was abandoned — is the accurate info here.
I get what you’re saying, but I think there’s too much scrutiny on word usage here. Diamond secured rights to the name and that’s what they made clear. They never implied specifically anything more specific. I suspect the spending of cash to secure the trademark and the money spent creating a brand around it is the “bought” in this instance. But given the subject matter and confusion already I can see how it made you wonder. But yeah I think we’re on the same page here.
Yeah, what Pixeldan said in his comment on Poe’s – i think with the first showing of the crocodile figure DST stated it’s ownership of the name just and that they could just produce figures that are not used already in the vintage line, which ideally means: all the animals they haven’t used… cool, right? I think they could come up with a crap ton of weird animals that noone even heard of, but i think that new dish they serve is alright.
Nothing too fancy, but yeah… going with the rules they got for being the name owners now.
With having the easy way to promote their DST product through their Diamond PREVIEWS Comic distribution (throwing freebies and promo material into comicshop’s orders (like they always do/did with the one shop i frequented) i can imagine it could get quite a popular line for a while, if they can keep it interesting… and produce some simple 2 point articulation figures for all the nostalgic guys, haha, instead of Minimates. Whose kids collects Minimates these days?
It doesn’t bother me in the least that DST is releasing something new with the name Battle Beasts. It’s obviously in the spirit of the old line (without the element thing), except they are going to be able to flesh out their world a lot more with the IDW book.
I’m not interested in buying any Redaki, or Gormitti, or whatever other little game figures are out there. Hasbro obviously wasn’t interested in resurrecting their Battle Beasts, so I’m glad DST decided to step in and make a play for those of us who would like these little figures.
Just a matter of word choice in my post, however from what I saw in looking at the comments on Poe’s site, others at the panel heard something similar, so I guess I’m not as crazy as I thought 🙂 We were told something along the lines of “bought” or “purchased”. Its really neither here no there though, the point I was making was that Diamond Select Toys has the name only. Anyhow, those Takara ones rock!
Just a matter of word choice in my post, however from what I saw in looking at the comments on Poe’s site, others at the panel heard something similar, so I guess I’m not as crazy as I thought 🙂 We were told something along the lines of “bought” or “purchased”. Its really neither here no there though, the point I was making was that Diamond Select Toys has the name only.
@FeedtheDead – I understand, but when it comes to trademarks word choice is very important. But thanks, at least this led to someone tracking down DST clarifying what happened.
http://www.actionfigurepics.com/2012/04/diamond-select-toys-battle-beasts-vorin-breakdown-and-thoughts#more-15282