Tencent is the latest party to respond in the Horizon clone lawsuit with Sony, stating that “fame does not create a trademark” when referring to Horizon’s Aloy.
For those new to the Horizon clone fiasco, Tencent is under fire by Sony for allegedly infringing copyrights and trademarks with their upcoming title, Light of Motiram. Sony has already called the title a “blatant knock off” of their Horizon series and has filed for an injunction. Tencent has now defended itself, arguing that the court did not have personal jurisdiction over Tencent Holdings and that Sony failed to sufficiently identify its purported trademark.
Tencent Holdings was not part of the San Francisco meeting with Sony, nor was it involved in the Marketing of Light of Motiram in the US
Spotted by GamesRadar+, the first point of Tencent’s defense is very similar to how the company had responded in the past, stating that Sony has brought the lawsuit against the wrong entities. Their points are that Sony has failed to demonstrate purposeful direction, as no Tencent Holdings employees were present at the March 2024 San Francisco meeting, and no infringing acts have been “intentionally planned, authorized and facilitated” by Tencent Holdings.
Tencent Holdings notes that although the company has registered the trademark for Light of Motiram, it is solely for administrative purposes related to managing trademarks outside of China. The company states that Tencent Holdings was not a part of the marketing, and Sony fails to show enough evidence to suggest that Tencent Holdings registered the game “to generate a nationwide audience.”
In their preliminary statement, it is stated that “Sony might be frustrated by the fact that it has to follow the proper procedures and serve the parties that, as alleged, are actually the relevant actors.” However, that is not a reason enough to “allow a deficient lawsuit against defendants that are not responsible for the alleged infringing conduct.
Sony Fails to Sufficiently Identify its Purported Trademark and the Alleged Use of the Aloy Character in Commerce
Tencent’s next point of defense in the Horizon clone lawsuit is that Sony failed to identify a particular, consistent trademark. The defence adds that Sony has named its trademark “the Aloy character” but has failed to explain what the trademark exactly looks like. The documents add that rather than providing precise identification, Sony claims that “the relevant population [i.e., video game players] recognizes the ALOY Character Mark.”
The company added that it may be true that “gamers recognize Aloy as a character inside the game”, but Sony has failed to identify “Aloy’s appearance as a trademark” outside of the game. The character has been characterized by their attire, accessories, and facial markings, but “generalized descriptions are not enough to identify a trademark.”
Coming to the alleged use of the Aloy character in commerce, Tencent defended itself in the Horizon clone lawsuit, stating, “Fame does not create a trademark; to qualify as a trademark, a mark must serve as a source identifier for a particular good or service.” The documents state that Sony doesn’t adequately allege that Aloy’s character is used as a distinct “source identifier in commerce”. Aloy is a playable character in the game, which is why the character will naturally feature in Horizon’s content.
That doesn’t make “Aloy a source identifier for the game any more than any other features of the game, such as its “large robotic animals” or “post-apocalyptic world,” both of which also appear in Horizon promotional materials.”
Sony has already responded to Tencent’s first line of defense in a previous response, stating that Tencent “attempted to avoid liability by playing a shell game with its brands and entities.” The response added that “Tencent Holdings reports all of its revenue and debt from games on its annual report without attribution to any subsidiary. And it uses the name Tencent to advertise its games, like Light of Motiram—without distinguishing between subsidiaries.”
What are your thoughts on Tencent stating “fame does not create a trademark” in the Horizon clone lawsuit with Sony? Leave your thoughts down in the comments, and join the official Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Not defending Tencent in anyway here but Sony along with other publishers and devs should be proud that other people want to copy their success. It pushes people to create better games with fresh ideas. If it flops, it flops. If it works, great for them. It’s essentially free marketing for the original concept for future players that missed out on it and who want to go back and play the OG.
Copyright is copyright. Sony owns the rights to Horizon and the fact that Tencent tried to play the shell game and win on technicalities in their arguments means they knew from the beginning this was a blatant infringement.
Well, if this is the case, then I guess Sony needs to be sued by Bethesda for copying Aela the Huntress, since she is vaguely tribal, and attractive, and appears to be a badass, as well.
Then Bethesda can get sued by BioWare for copying base FemShep, then get sued by the devs of Bloodrayne, then Lara Croft, and on and on back to Sarus Aran in Metroid.
Having attractive, exotic females in games isn’t anything new. And as for gameplay, when is the last time anything really NEW came out? Eve is just blended mix of copied things from the past.
The Outer Wilds was the last game that really showed me anything new, and even it is just a reworking of other games with “immortal” characters.
Obvious infringement, but law ignores the obvious more often than not and technicalities are usually what wins.
Anyone who tries to absolve Tencent here is acting in bad faith. Read Sony’s filed briefs, they even hired a composer that worked on Forbidden West’s OST to replicate the musical style.