Ion Maiden video game renamed after $2million Iron Maiden lawsuit
A PC video game originally called Ion Maiden has been renamed following a $2million (£1.6million) lawsuit from Iron Maiden’s holding company.
Iron Maiden Holdings Limited filed a lawsuit at the Central District of California court on Tuesday 28th May accusing Ion Maiden’s makers 3D Realms Entertainment of using an “incredibly blatant” and “virtually identical imitation of the Iron Maiden trademark.”
Demanding $2million (£1.6million) in damages, the papers alleged that the game’s title causes “confusion among customers” and it’s “nearly identical to the Iron Maiden trademark in appearance, sound and overall commercial impression.”
In response to the sizable lawsuit, 3D Realms Entertainment launched a new trailer for the game yesterday (11th January) under its new name Ion Fury.
"We’ve decided to rename our first-person-shooter Ion Maiden to Ion Fury," said Mike Nielsen, CEO of 3D Realms.
"A lot of thought went into this, but most importantly it would be a disservice to our loyal fanbase and the fantastic developers, to drag out a long lawsuit. The amazing gameplay, interactivity and pure fun, is what makes Ion Fury a great game. Not the title."
Commenting on the case, John Coldham, a partner at the law firm, Gowling WLG, told Planet Rock: "This is a clear demonstration of the fact that piggy backing on a well-known brand name is not the correct route to take, whatever the potential financial advantages of being associated with it.
"Iron Maiden have closely protected their commercial branding rights for many years and rightly so. 3D Realms will have had to incur the costs of changing the branding of their game – which should act as a clear lesson for others who are at the product development stage to not associate what they do with unrelated successful brands."
Ion Fury is released on PC on 15th August.
Meanwhile, Iron Maiden kick off the North American leg of their Legacy of the Beast World Tour at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida next Thursday (18th July).
Iron Maiden have just released a video of drummer Nicko McBrain talking about the setlist on the European leg of the Legacy of the Beast Tour in his own inimitable style. Watch the video below.
We recently rounded up a number Iron Maiden classics and deeper cuts we’d love to see on their setlist one day:
Feature: 16 rarely performed Iron Maiden songs we'd love to see live