The Last Guardian Trademark Abandoned by Sony

Written by Brandon Hofer on February 16, 2015

News: The USPTO has revealed that Sony has abandoned the trademark for The Last Guardian but what does that mean exactly?

The Last Guardian is a game that people have been waiting for ever since it was revealed many years ago. At first it was supposed to be a PS3 game and then completely missed the whole generation leading to speculation that it had been transitioned over to be a PS4 title. With that said there was some potentially bad news revealed earlier today when it was discovered that Sony has abandoned “The Last Guardian” trademark. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has this as the following status of The Last Guardian:

“Abandoned because no Statement of Use or Extension Request timely filed after Notice of Allowance was issued.”

PlayStation Flash Sale

The first thought that most will have upon hearing this news is that The Last Guardian has finally been cancelled. That isn’t necessarily the case though. There are a number of different reasons this could have happened. The game being cancelled is certainly one of those possibilities but what if Sony is simply changing the name? The game could be doing just fine in development right now and Sony has simply decided that they will call the game something else and so “The Last Guardian” is no longer needed. Then of course you have to consider that Sony might have just forgot to renew the trademark in time. There have been examples of companies doing that and then quickly getting the trademark back.

What do you think about this recent event? Is this a sign that The Last Guardian is close to being cancelled or is it simply being renamed? Or did Sony simply forget to renew the trademark? If you think it is being renamed, do you think Sony is preparing to unveil it this year at E3?

source: United States Patent and Trademark Office