Virtual Assassin

Assassin's Creed, developed by Ubisoft, is an action-adventure game known for its historical settings.

In the series, players take on the roles of various characters navigating through different eras. Widely acclaimed as one of the most successful gaming franchises, Assassin's Creed has a huge fan base along with numerous titles and spin-offs.

Ubisoft has protected the ASSASSIN’S CREED trademark through multiple trademark registrations, amongst others for the European Union. Earlier this year, Ubisoft filed an application to register ASSASSIN'S CREED for NFTs and virtual goods (class 9). In 2020 and 2021 there was a huge increase in the tokenising and selling of digital works as NFTs by creative professionals, resulting in costly transactions. ASSASSIN’S CREED could not afford to miss out on this hype, as games are, by definition, a marketplace for NFTs and virtual goods. 

Unfortunately, the application met an opposition from Fontaine Limited, the owner of the CREED trademark, which is used for perfumes. You may think: perfume and games have nothing to do with each other, right? True, but when both trademarks are registered for NFTs and similar products (like in the present case), they suddenly become part of each other's territory.

As one of the first NFT issues, it will be interesting to see how the European Trademark Office deals with the matter. To be continued…...