I'm sure this is all coincidental, but...

DeLorean

DeLorean
Last edited:

Alex Brentnall

Alex Brentnall
If FD were American sure but they are British! :p

They may wish to dispute the name holding the trademark as I understand it but the game itself seems unique enough and actually looks kinda cool, wouldn't personally want to risk damaging that too bad and stifle the talent.

As for the ship: Quad nacelle ships have existed for a while in concept like Kerbal Space Program: http://i.imgur.com/GA61M8V.png
Finally I'd add that the Expo on 7th October was the Cheiftain announcement date, this ship on FPS was around April 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raSx4SKlfXQ


From my eyes as an untrained ill-informed bystander there's no basis for a lawsuit beyond the name. Likelyhood of lawsuit = low, probability of success if completed = moderate, chance of it costing more than it's worth = high.

Probably best to make a friendly request and ask them to change it and see what the response is. Personally If I were Frontier and the developers of FPS seem reasonable I'd offer to throw the game a bit of free publicity if they will change the name. Seems fair all around, no lawyers or issues, everyone wins.
If they refuse to change the name I'd personally base it on the success of the game, If the game picks up hundreds of thousands of followers it may be worth pursuing to protect the brand. Then again most games on steam these days die rather quick painful deaths never selling more than a few thousand copies.
 
Last edited:

DeLorean

DeLorean
Yep. There are lots of differences and, as I said, it could all be coincidence.

I should clarify - I meant lawyering-up as in checking that there is no attempt at "passing off" happening, rather than going full-pelt into litigation.
 

Jukelo

Jukelo
DeLorean said:
Now, I'm sure it's all a coincidence, even though in their FAQs they say "You know, we played all of it. All major titles in space sim industry."
Click to expand...

I'd hope having played all the major titles in the space sim industry would be a pre-requesite for making a space sim these days, not a red flag.

- "Frontier" in the title.
Click to expand...

If you're trying to copy the Elite franchise, you don't call your game by the name of a company which virtually nobody knows. People know Elite, they don't know Frontier. Maybe the roller coaster people know Frontier for RCT3 and PC, but if you say Elite the first name that comes to mind, if any, is David Braben, not Frontier.

- A ship that looks, erm, familiar.
Click to expand...

It looks vaguely like the Chieftain because they both share the generic sci-fi-dropship-with-orientable-engine-nacelles look.
That's like those accusations the Skyjet from Valerian was stolen from ED's Orca.
Sci-fi space ships have been done to death, it's virtually impossible to create something that isn't going to look like something else, especially if you stick to very generic designs inspired by the most common sci-fi material.

- Calling the release "First chapter".
Click to expand...

I'm at a loss there, what does that have to do with Elite?
 
Last edited:

krylite

krylite
Looks like a flight simulator with campaign missions on a single alien planet worldspace. Yeah, the ship looks kind of like a chieftan, which it turn kind of reminded me of a star citizen "idris", which further reminded me of a generic rip-off of generic sci-fi dropships of years prior, in movies, sci-fi book covers etc. "Frontier" and "chapter" are so generic labels, it doesn't really bother me if they use them in the ad blurb.
 
Last edited:

Adhock

A
Lawsuit no, but Frontier may be keeping an eye on it already and have a "Cease and Desist" order on standby if things look too 'infringy'.

But I'm sure their Legal Team will know when and how to handle it.

If nothing else, depending on how the game works, It might turn people to Elite for something more polished through the "Also Recommended" window.
 

GraXXoR

GraXXoR
The flight model and atmospheric flight looks almost as if it's physically modelled. Whatch the excellent landing sequence how the ship angles ltself to handle sharp deceleration.

Since it's physically modelled, it can't be a copy of elite dangerous's arbitrarily modelled flight system...

Also, when ED gets planetary atmospheric landings, can they sue Frontier back for copying their idea?

Adhock said:
Lawsuit no, but Frontier may be keeping an eye on it already and have a "Cease and Desist" order on standby if things look too 'infringy'.

But I'm sure their Legal Team will know when and how to handle it.

If nothing else, depending on how the game works, It might turn people to Elite for something more polished through the "Also Recommended" window.
Click to expand...

Can you send a C&D to a company in a country where you have no presence?
 

Adhock

A
GraXXoR said:
Can you send a C&D to a company in a country where you have no presence?
Click to expand...

I'm going to freely admit I'm no lawyer and wouldn't be able to answer that.

I will say that it might be possible given that a particular Cable TV Company in the UK who's aggressively protective of their brand managed to make Microsoft who is US based back down and change their name of the OneDrive cloud system from something else.
 

Goblin949

G
Send a complaint to Valve, they will cease sales of this imposter for the time of investigations who's stealing what. I'm sure everyone will be very happy. Maybe you will even make it into gaming press something about another assault on a poor indie dev (but we know that's impostor!).
 

CMDRGibbs

C
Hmmm wow that's what planets and their atmospheres should actually look like in ED... great looking game from a planetary graphics perspective. And oh look a player driven economy. This isn't an imposter, nothing is lawsuit worthy, unless jealousy of a game that has feature that this game should have after 4 years is somehow worthy of a lawsuit.
 
Last edited:

Arindor

Arindor
I think there's only one atmospheric world (albeit with amazing visuals and realistic flight mechanic), if only ED had ONE of those. ;) I may wait to buy this once they've fixed numerous bugs in it. Until then I will get my space sim fix with ED. :)
 

Alex Brentnall

Alex Brentnall
Cervantes01 said:
FD do not own the word 'Frontier...'
Click to expand...

Try telling that to the lawyers. I mean Bethesda were trying to sue Majong for the word "Scrolls" as a game.


The fact that Frontier have games like:
Frontier: Elite
Frontier: First Encounters

with the name clearly in the title as well as that this game is in the same genre means there is definitely a case to be heard. Whether or not it can be won is another matter but I'd be shocked if a judge didn't at least hear the case properly. From what I've seen in other cases generally unless it can be proven there are quantifiable damages to the Frontier brand/series theres little to be gained beyond forcing the other to change their name.




As for it being something nobody knows I'd argue there's a few thousand people in FPS right now looking at youtube views whereas Elite Dangerous has a few million players. Sure its not like calling your game Call of flight sim Duty or anything but in the genre of space and flying games Elite is well up there with the most popular of them. The only bigger flight/space sims is SC in terms of numbers, arguably Ace Combat/Hawx but they've more or less both died out by now.


Yes it is possible to sue other countries and file C&Ds and the like but if you put any action forwards in a legal sense you have to do so in a recognised court afaik so no suing in North Korea :p
A C&D is just a legal letter saying "stop that or else". The "or else" part is a lawsuit if they ignore the C&D. I'm 99% sure a C&D can be sent from anyone to anyone.

And no I don't think FPS could counter-sue if ED gets atmospheric landings, such a thing is not copyrighted. Techniques and software methods to achieve detail or physics or whatever will be controlled but the feature itself isn't. If it were then FFE would hold the copyright anyway <- I think FFE was the first right?
 

Zeeman

Zeeman
Apart from a single word in the title being the a same as a word in the company name of FD... That's about all there is. That looks completely different. It's 3rd person, for a start. Looks more like they are going for a Firefly type of feel.

Looks like it may even be fun...

Z...
 
Last edited:

EdzUp

EdzUp
Even Apple failed to get the rights to the word as did King with the "Saga" fiasco. Frontier would lose this and it would be costly to be honest.
 

Kayweg

Kayweg
Zeeman said:
Apart from a single word int he title being the a same as a word in the company name of FD... That's about all there is. That looks completely different. It's 3rd person, for a start. Looks more like they are going for a Firefly type of feel.

Looks like it may even be fun...

Z...
Click to expand...

Fully agree, and yes, doesn't look half bad actually.
For giggles i did a Steam search on "Frontier", quite a few games with that word in the title as it turns out.
Nothing to see here methinks, and to be fair, OP himself seemed to have his own doubts already.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom