IKEA has allegedly filed a stop and desist letter in opposition to an indie developer over perceived similarities between horror sport The Retailer Is Closed and IKEA shops.
The Retailer Is Closed is co-op survival sport set in an “infinite furnishings retailer” and can see gamers needing to “craft weapons and construct fortifications to outlive the night time.”
Created by Ziggy, a one-man indie studio, The Retailer Is Closed is at the moment in its final week of a Kickstarter marketing campaign the place it’s raised £45,000 forward of a 2024 launch date.
Nonetheless, in line with Ziggy (aka Jacob Shaw) IKEA’s legal professionals contacted him concerning the sport earlier this week. In accordance with Kotaku, the Swedish furnishings big’s legal professionals filed a stop and desist letter in opposition to Shaw claiming The Retailer Is Closed “makes use of, with out our shopper’s authorisation, indicia related to the well-known IKEA shops.”
IKEA’s legal professionals contacted me about The Retailer is Closed.. #IndieGameDev #gamenews #Ikea https://t.co/sKYCeozPKm
— Ziggy (@ZiggyGameDev) October 28, 2022
“Your sport makes use of a blue and yellow signal with a Scandinavian title on the shop, a blue box-like constructing, yellow vertical striped shirts equivalent to these worn by IKEA personnel, a gray path on the ground, furnishings that appears like IKEA furnishings, and product signage that appears like IKEA signage,” continues the letter. “All of the foregoing instantly counsel that the sport takes place in an IKEA retailer.”
Shaw has been informed that his “unauthorised use of the IKEA indicia constitutes unfair competitors and false promoting below Sections 43(a) of the U.S. Trademark Act, 15 U.S. C § 1125(a), and state unfair competitors and false promoting legal guidelines.”
Shaw disputes the claims, saying the yellow and blue signage is barely seen on the sport’s fundamental menu whereas all in-game furnishings comes from “generic furnishings packs however a number of gamers and press shops have in contrast The Retailer Is Closed to IKEA. Shaw has been given ten days to “change the sport and take away all indicia related to the well-known Ikea shops.”
“I used to be going to spend the final week of my Kickstarter getting ready an replace for all the brand new alpha testers, however now I’ve obtained to desperately revamp the whole look of the sport so I don’t get sued,” Shaw stated in an interview.
Earlier this yr, IKEA teamed up with dance titans Swedish Home Mafia for a joint furnishings assortment.
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