By Andrew Dodson on February 3, 2014 at 6:33pm
"Watch Dogs," UbiSoft's widely anticipated open world hacker-adventure game, was delayed in Nov. 2013 and set for release this coming summer. On Feb. 1, according to a U.S Patent Office document, UbiSoft seemed to have abandoned the trademark for the game entirely.
The news of this has been shifting around the internet the last day or two, making people that are excited to play the game a little bit nervous about a sudden cancellation or more delays. However, it appears that the filing for the abandonment of the trademark was completely fraudulent. A petition was sent to the US Patent Office on Feb. 3, requesting the office to prevent any abandonment from occurring. The facts of the petition state:
On Feb. 1, 2014, Ubisoft Entertainment received an email from TEAS@uspto.gov notifying Ubisoft Entertainment that a Request for Express Abandonment had been filed in connection with Application Serial No. 85642398. The Request for Express Abandonment purports to be signed by the Chief Executive Officer of Ubisoft Entertainment, Yves Guillemot.
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.
As of this filing, the Office has not yet issued a Notice of Abandonment.
As of this article, this issue has not yet been resolved, but according to Ubisoft, it will have no affect on the development of "Watch Dogs." The actual release date has been bounced around a lot, but it still looks like we should have in our hands by this summer. If you like rumors though, check out this little Twitter exchange with Noam Jenkins (the voice of the main character in the game) about a possible time frame for the release:
Watch Dogs Main Site
