Bandai Namco Is Apparently Looking To Trademark The Term 'Finishing Move'

Trademark

from the fatality dept

Okay, this really needs to stop happening. There has been a recent wave of those in some way involved in the video gaming business applying for trademarks on insanely common gaming terms and phrases. We saw this in recent examples, such as Sony’s brazen attempt to trademark “let’s play,” a term for wildly popular online videos showing games in action. Tangentially, the Fine Brothers’ attempt to transform “react videos” into a licensing revenue stream was met with heavy criticism, warranted or not. And now we have Bandai Namco trying to trademark the term “finishing move” in Japanese.

Specifically, Bandai Namco is trying to patent the Japanese term “Hissatsuwaza,” which translates to “finishing move.” While the term may not be used all that often in English, it is extremely common in Japanese video games, anime, and manga. Though the term seems very clear-cut, it doesn’t always mean that an opponent is “finished.” For example, current Street Fighter games have finishing moves that are flashy but don’t actually kill the opponent like, say, the finishing moves in Mortal Kombat do.

Gamers here in the United States will instantly be familiar with the term “finishing move”, having heard its use in all manner of games for decades, from fighting games like Mortal Kombat, to games in other genres, and even as the term has bled into non-gaming vernacular. “Finish Him!” — the phrase shouted at the culminating moment of a Mortal Kombat game — is certainly well-known enough for even non-gamers to be familiar with it.

The point is that this trademark attempt comes so unbelievably late in the game that it’s hard to view it as anything other than a money-grab achieved through the locking up of common language. Much of the commentary surrounding Bandai Namco’s actions here surmise that the attempt is doomed to failure for all the reasons that led to Sony’s failure. But this is trademark we’re talking about, and with a foreign language thrown in to boot, so who knows?

I don’t see this happening, but if it does, we may see a bunch of games have to call their finishing moves something else. We also don’t know if this trademark extends to non-Japanese speaking countries, since the trademark is technically for “Hissatsuwaza.”

More interesting to me is what the attempt illustrates, which is that incumbent businesses aren’t wielding trademark for its purpose, but are instead weaponizing it as either a money-maker or to stamp out competition.

Filed Under: finishing move, japan, trademark, video games
Companies: bandai namco