Creator Of Flappy Bird Clone Claims His Duplication Is Covered By Trademark

from the who's-the-actual-moron-in-a-hurry-here? dept

Possibly one of the last bits of cultural detritus from the extremely bizarre Flappy Bird story makes its way to us via chiptune artist Ben Landis, who spotted a rather audacious claim from an entity calling itself “Samuel David Entertainment.”

Samuel David Entertainment recently released “Flappy Bird: Remake,” a game that appears to be a very slightly altered “Flappy Bird” clone. Despite it being an obvious knockoff, this message appears in the game’s “Description.”

Please note: ‘Flappy Bird: Remake’ is trademarked property of Samuel David Entertainment. All items, names, places and other aspects of the game are owned by Samuel David Entertainment.

Samuel David Entertainment is not affiliated or related to Dong Nguyen and the legacy Flappy Bird.

Should you have any enquiry regarding intellectual property issue please contact us at outlet.shopapp@gmail.com

First off, “Flappy Bird: Remake” is certainly not a registered trademarked, at least not in the US. Pending trademark applications for the original Flappy Bird — filed by Dong Nguyen — are currently pending in the US Patent and Trademark Office database. And while you don’t need to register to have a valid trademark, it’s difficult to see how “Flappy Bird: Remake” could even have a common law trademark. Either Nguyen is going to have the trademark or there won’t be one. Secondly, it takes a special kind of person to copy someone else’s game entirely and then try to prevent future cloning via a bit of peremptory legalese.

Samuel David couldn’t even be bothered to use his own screenshot on the game’s iTunes page.

> Note that the shot still contains the “© .GEARS 2013” message put there by the game’s original creator, .GEARS. And the infringement runs into multiple layers, considering the original Flappy Bird was accused of utilizing Nintendo assets, something this clone would contain as well.

Adding to the sheer ridiculousness is the fact that the “Flappy Bird: Remake” support page is… a Vietnamese news website.

You know, if you’re just going to clone someone else’s game, at least have the self-awareness to realize that trying to “protect” your “work” (especially with bogus claims) going forward just makes you look like an idiot, and a hugely disingenuous one at that.

Filed Under: clone, copy, copyright, dong nguyen, flappy bird, flappy bird remake, samuel david, trademark
Companies: gears, samuel david entertainment