Video Game ‘The Day Before’ Dealing With Trademark Challenge Over A Calendar App

We've dealt with a great many silly trademark disputes in the video game industry over the years, but this one is a special kind of stupid. Fntastic, the studio behind the forthcoming The Day Before horror game, has released a couple statements lately regarding an apparent ongoing trademark dispute. The first announcement confirmed that the game's release date was being pushed back due to Steam blocking the game page at the request of a trademark holder for The Day Before." Then, shortly after, YouTube began removing videos promoting The Day Before from the developer's channel as well.

So... what's going on here? Well, like I said, it's actually quite stupid. Months after Fntastic announced its game back in 2021, someone out there who had made a calendar app went and got a trademark on The Day Before" and in recent days began complaining to Steam and YouTube to get all this content taken down. Yes, a calendar app.

First Steam and then YouTube removed some of The Day Before videos from our channel due to a trademark dispute," Fntastic's latest statement reads. The Day Before's release date, which was supposed to be March 1, was recently delayed eight months. Fntastic claims the reason for that is due to someone else filing a trademark for The Day Before, preventing the studio from doing so.

This most recent statement actually sheds a little more light on what exactly Fntastic is claiming has happened, revealing who filed a trademark for The Day Before. The so-called owner' of the rights to the title is the creator of the calendar app, which has nothing to do with the games category," the statement reads. There's an app called TheDayBefore which is presumably what Fntastic is referencing.

Is this an attempt at a money-grab? It certainly smells like one. The trademark gets filed a few months after Fntastic announces its game. Attempts to take down content and delay the game launch occur just before the launch date. And, in a separate statement, the studio says the owner of the trademark has requested contact for a discussion, ostensibly for some kind of arrangement that involves an exchange of money.

Except here's the thing: calendars are not video games. Either the trademark holder has the mark in that category or they do not. And if they do not, know they do not, and know that Fntastic's use does not infringe but submitted takedown requests for this content anyways, well, that's arguably fraud.

And if all of that is true, then Fntastic should be taking this individual to court for a declaratory judgement that its use is non-infringing. I would expect such a suit to be coming shortly.