The dispute between Stoic and King may hinder the release of Stoic’s sequel of The Banner Saga due to the recent trademark conflicts.
After King submitted a Notice of Opposition to the US Patent and Trademark Office more developments have arisen. CVG received a statement from king yesterday stating that, “King has not and is not trying to stop Banner Saga from using its name.” and expanded “Like any prudent company, we need to take all appropriate steps to protect our IP, both now and in the future”.
Stoic, developers of The Banner Saga have offered a response to the issue at hand, releasing a statement on the on-going trademark issues with fellow game developer King. Reports from Polygon revealed Stoic Studios response to the current issues. “Two years ago, the three of us at Stoic set out to make an epic Viking game… we did and people loved it, so we’re making another one” they continued “Essentially, we are not allowed to own the name ‘The Banner Saga’ for our game about a Viking epic, because king.com says they have claimed rights to the noun ‘saga’ which means ‘a Viking epic’ forever more in the realm of games”.
The story continues to unfold, we’ll keep you posted on any updates.
Laura Ash / @lauraanneash