Firm Sues Microsoft Over Game Name

The name of Microsoft's upcoming Mythica game is too close for the comfort of a Washington, D.C. gaming company, which has filed a lawsuit against the software giant in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The lawsuit was filed on November 12 by Mythic Entertainment, the publisher of the Dark Age of Camelot game. It alleges that Microsoft's upcoming Norse mythology-based Mythica game violates Mythic's trademark.

Role-Playing Rivals

Both Mythica, which is expected to be released in the fall of 2004, and Dark Age of Camelot are so-called massively multiplayer online role-playing games where players create characters who interact in a fictional universe.

The similarity between the Mythica title and the Mythic company name have "resulted in multiple instances of actual confusion and mistake in the marketplace," Mythic's complaint alleges.

When Mythic learned that Microsoft intended to call its new game Mythica, it voiced its concerns to the company staffers at the E3 gaming convention in May, according to Mark Jacobs, Mythic's president and chief executive officer.

"I said, 'I was thinking of calling my next game Microsofter, do you think Microsoft would mind?'" he says.

When it became clear that Microsoft would not respond to Mythic's concerns, the smaller company filed its lawsuit, Jacobs says.

Just Seeking a Switch

Mythic hopes the court will compel Microsoft to change the name of its game and to pay minor damages, Jacobs says.

"We're not asking them to back up the armored car and drop the cash into our vault; we want them to stop using the name," he says. "That's it, plain and simple."

Microsoft is investigating Mythic's complaint and will "respond once we have more information," says Jim Desler, a Microsoft spokesperson.

Dark Age of Camelot has about 250,000 subscribers worldwide, who pay between $11 and $13 to play the game each month, Jacobs says.