NetEase files ECC: Redline trademarks covering online multiplayer games

NetEase Interactive Entertainment has filed trademark applications for ECC: Redline in the United States and European Union. The U.S. application is unusually explicit about one possible use: its services list includes “massively multiplayer online role-playing games,” alongside other online multiplayer and gaming categories.

Insider Gaming identified the U.S. and European records in a September 27 report. The U.S. application, serial 50120870, was filed September 21 by NetEase Interactive Entertainment Pte. Ltd. It remains a new application rather than a registered mark.

The filing covers more than one kind of product

The U.S. record spans two classes. Class 009 covers downloadable and recorded game software for personal computers and mobile phones, including interactive and multiplayer online games. Class 041 covers services such as online multiplayer games, esports competitions, online electronic games and multimedia publishing, as well as the explicit MMORPG phrase.

That wording is evidence of what NetEase wants the mark to cover, not a specification for a finished game. Trademark applications are commonly written broadly enough to protect several plausible uses. Insider Gaming notes that the European application, number 019424883, uses broader language and does not narrow the project in the same way.

No game has been announced

NetEase has not announced an ECC: Redline game, named a developer, listed platforms or provided a release window. Insider Gaming also checked related job listings but found no additional detail tying them to the mark.