The lost history of System Shock

[6634fc4e7d014Kolya]

Tags: °history
I don't have much time, but this article deals with the copyrights and trademark chaos surrounding the System Shock series:
http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/713030/the-lost-history-of-system-shock/
https://web.archive.org/web/20130113082649/http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/713030/the-lost-history-of-system-shock/

EA's System Shock Story

In 2006, a trio of rumors hinted that Electronic Arts was making System Shock 3. First came a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Then came a couple of unconfirmed reports [...]

But even if EA wanted to publish another System Shock, the company didn't have the rights to do so. Back when the original game was made, producer Warren Spector negotiated a deal in which EA got the trademark to the series, while the developers at Looking Glass Studios kept the rights. To create another System Shock game, you need both. "My thinking was it would force us to be married so it never would be that either party should be able to say we own that, we’re making the next game, screw you," Spector told the San Jose Mercury News last November.

[...]the copyright to the series went into the hands of an insurance company. That left EA with only the System Shock name, but no actual development rights.

In 2007, the System Shock trademark went dead, abandoned by EA. The Redwood Shores studio went on to develop Dead Space, [...]

System Shock 3: A New Hope

As Spector had mentioned, an insurance company got the rights to System Shock after Looking Glass Studios shut down. I tracked down the insurer, Star Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Michigan-based Meadowbrook Insurance Group, Inc., and confirmed that the rights are available for sale.

George Borkowski, an outside counsel for Meadowbrook, said the company would consider selling the rights to a game publisher or developer. "The idea would be to enter into some kind of arrangement where the game would be developed and that Meadowbrook would be compensated,” he said.

It sounds to me like Meadowbrook wants a game company to share sales revenue, but Borkowski wouldn't talk about financial details. He did say that there have been inquiries about the rights, but elaborated no further.

Even with development rights, EA's prior trademark could be an issue for potential buyers. Michael Cavaretta, an attorney who deals with trademarks and copyrights in the video game industry, believes a publisher wouldn't be able to create another System Shock without EA's blessing. Oddly enough, there are no records of EA applying for the System Shock trademark through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office until 2005, but EA likely has common law rights as a prior publisher, and could still revive its trademark from the dead, Cavaretta said. That could cause trouble for a publisher looking to bring back the series.

“You'd probably get a rejection from the Patent and Trademark Office, and you'd probably have to demonstrate that the mark had been permanently abandoned or that you've gotten consent from the original applicant," Cavaretta said.

[6634fc4e7d4c7Enchantermon]

Very, very interesting. I wonder if, now that the rights are publicly known to be available for purchase, anyone else will take a shot at them. I imagine one of the inquiries mentioned was Ken Levine, as he went on a search for the rights years ago; I wonder who else went looking for them.

[6634fc4e7d625Kolya]

We should buy them.

[6634fc4e7d913gaspalorz]

We really should before some heretic abomination mentioned in last paragraph is born.

In other words, the future of System Shock is still quite dubious. One dream scenario: 2K Games buys the rights from Meadowbrook, and sets BioShock 4 in deep space, with SHODAN as the surprise antagonist. It would be System Shock System Shock Forever: Deep Bio Space minus the trademark, and it would be wonderful. You heard it here first.

Fixed.

[6634fc4e7ddb9Enchantermon]

We should buy them.

Don't think the thought hadn't crossed my mind.

[6634fc4e7df68voodoo47]

I'm in.

[6634fc4e7e2f3RocketMan]

err...before we open our wallets...how much is it?

[6634fc4e7e4baNameless Voice]

I'd guess: a lot.

[6634fc4e7e5a3voodoo47]

define "a lot".

[6634fc4e7e6b3Kolya]

The article hints they might be interested in shared revenues from a new game. That's not something we can offer.
Then again a new System Shock game has become extremely unlikely anyway.

[6634fc4e7e7a4Nameless Voice]

I'd guess six figures or more, if they'd even be interested in a straight sale.

[6634fc4e7e8abRocketMan]

A collaboration of half a dozen skilled people here, to make a fan mission resembling ss3, funded lightly by the contributions of the other forum members would be far more cost effective.

[6634fc4e7ec92unn_atropos]

Is it possible that the first screenshot of this articel shows an early version of the game?
The corridor doesn't look familiar to me, maybe like something from rttunn. And the laserpistol needs prisms??

[6634fc4e7ee2cKolya]

Yes, it was taken from the sshock2.com selection of preproduction screen shots.

[6634fc4e7ef35Scorpion]

Damn you beat me to it Kolya. I was just about to tell you, haha.

Ninja Edit:

I'd also be willing to help buy the rights to this.

[6634fc4e7f1b8Michael]

I raised a similar question over on the Irrational Games forum...

"I noticed that the situation regarding the rights to System Shock 2 is similar to the one faced by the original Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis. With respect to the latter, Bohemia Interactive Studios owned the rights to the game whereas their publisher Codemasters owned the rights to the franchise name.

With an eventual split between the two companies Bohemia continued making Flashpoint games under the name 'ARMA' in a manner similar to how Irrational has gone on to make spiritual successors under the Bioshock name whereas Codemasters attempted to create their own series of poor imitations under the Flashpoint name.

For the past decade a rerelease of the original Flashpoint looked like an impossibility so long as Codemasters continued to own the rights to the Flashpoint name... that is, until this past May when Bohemia decided to rebrand Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis as Arma: Cold War Assault (thereby bypassing the title rights Codemasters held).

Bohemia was then able to include the original game as part of their ARMA X: Anniversary Edition that has since seen a release on several digital distribution services including Steam. The game remains the same as the original from 2001 except for a new patch which has removed any titles or references to Flashpoint replacing them with the Arma title and logo.

Anyways, I was wondering whether or not this is something that Irrational Games could do with System Shock 2. Would rereleasing the game under another name allow Irrational to avoid violating any rights that EA has as a publisher to the System Shock series or does EA own more than just the game title? Thoughts?"

I wonder if this could be a possible course of action for Levine and Irrational Games.

[6634fc4e7f373Kolya]

Currently Irrational doesn't own the rights either. Also it's not clear what EA's sleeping trademark included. May have been more than just the game title, eg SHODAN, Von Braun, Citadel, you name it. In that case re-branding wouldn't be enough. It would require to re-record audiologs, change textures, rewrite the plot. That's a lot of work and then you can't change a game like that and go on to re-sell it as an old classic, which didn't sell to begin with. Where's the money in that?
So instead, why not redo the whole game in a new engine, neatly sidestepping trademark and development rights holders? Keep the general plot and gameplay but change the setting to avoid infringing anything and ... Is it too soon to whisper Oscar?

[6634fc4e7f766Enchantermon]

So instead, why not redo the whole game in a new engine, neatly sidestepping trademark and development rights holders? Keep the general plot and gameplay but change the setting to avoid infringing anything and ... Is it too soon to whisper Oscar?

They did that. It's called Bioshock.

[6634fc4e7faacLudogator]

They did that. It's called Bioshock.

Bioshock, even if it was a great game, still wasn't what I expected.

I'm supresed how this topic died so quickly.

[6634fc4e7fc03bakagami]

another approach would be to just do away with then System Shock name entirely.  Call it something else

[6634fc4e7fd6ebakagami]

God, EA sucks

[6634fc4e7fe7fbakagami]

Sorry Micheal, looks like you already suggested that

[6634fc4e8001cZylonBane]

Stop posting.

[6634fc4e80279Kolya]

Searching the US patents and trademark office for "System Shock" turns up this 2 trademarks on "System Shock", one by EA which was abandoned in 2007, the other by the insurance company Meadowbrook who renewed their trademark in August 2011.
Both solely apply to the title "System Shock". The name "SHODAN" is not protected.
Here are the application docs by Meadowbrook. Note the "drawing" which shows the name "SYSTEM SHOCK" solely, black on white.

From this it looks like all EA/Meadowbrook ever had was/is the name of the game (as a trademark). This might need further research: Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)
This does not include potential intellectual property. I don't know where to look that up.
The Intellectual Property Rights Search of the US Customs and Border Protection turns up empty anyway.