BrockStar vs Rockstar (Take-Two Interactive): Round Two. The Tables Have Turned.

What was filed

A Petition for Cancellation under Section 14(3) of the Trademark Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1064(3), directed at one registration: No. 2,855,543, the composite mark consisting of the R-and-star device in a gold square with a black band reading ROCKSTAR GAMES, registered June 22, 2004 for "computer game software and video game programs" in Class 9 and renewed on August 20, 2024. Source: USPTO TSDR, Reg. No. 2,855,543

The petition pleads two counts:

• Count I, abandonment (15 U.S.C. §§ 1064(3), 1127): that the registered composite has not been used on the identified goods for far longer than the three consecutive years that make abandonment presumptive, that the only product ever evidenced for it was manufactured no later than 2010, and that Take-Two now uses the device and the words as separate marks, which it has separately registered.
• Count II, fraud in maintaining and renewing the registration (In re Bose Corp., 580 F.3d 1240 (Fed. Cir. 2009)): that the June 4, 2024 declaration of continued use was false, that it was executed by Take-Two's outside trademark counsel on the strength of a photograph of a sealed, discontinued 2010 package, that the same package had been photographed for the 2010 and 2014 filings, and that the declaration was made knowingly or with reckless disregard for its truth. The petition pleads that Take-Two and its counsel were on written notice from January 20, 2025 that the maintenance record was under challenge, and that five further declarations on related registrations followed.

Those are allegations. Take-Two has not yet answered, and the Board has decided nothing. Its order of November 4 institutes the case and sets the schedule; it is not a ruling on the merits.

The documents

Republished from the Board's docket. The exhibit book reproduces, with the USPTO document numbers, the specimens Take-Two itself filed between 2002 and 2026.

What it all means

• A petition to cancel is the mirror image of an opposition. In 2024 Take-Two asked the Board to stop BrockStar's registration. In 2026 BrockStar asks the same Board to strike one of Take-Two's.
• The target is one registration, not the Rockstar logo in general. Reg. 2,855,543 is a specific picture: the gold square, the black band, the words ROCKSTAR GAMES inside it. Take-Two owns other registrations for the R-and-star device alone and for the words alone. Those are not in this case.
• Abandonment has a legal definition. Three consecutive years of non-use is presumptive abandonment under 15 U.S.C. § 1127. The petition says the last product that carried this badge was made in 2010.
• Fraud here means a false sworn statement to the Patent Office. Every ten years a registrant must swear the mark is still in use and show a specimen. The petition says the 2024 sworn statement was false and that its specimen, a photograph of a sealed 2010 box, is the proof.
• The Board has already served Take-Two. The institution order is the Board's service. Take-Two must answer by January 3, 2027 or face default.
• What happens next. Take-Two's likely first move is a motion to dismiss. After that: a discovery conference, document and deposition discovery, trial by written record, briefs, and a decision by a panel of administrative trademark judges, probably in 2028.
• What it costs. $600 to file. There is no courtroom; Board proceedings are conducted on paper.
• What BrockStar is asking for. Cancellation of the registration. Nothing else is requested in the petition.
• Why a marketing company cares about a video-game registration. BrockStar is expanding into software and games under BROCKSTAR-formative names. An unused registration for identical goods, one letter away, is a citation an examiner can raise and that Take-Two has already pleaded once.
• Nothing in the petition is secret. It is built from Take-Two's own filings in the USPTO's public database. Anyone can check every page against TSDR.

The schedule the Board set

Dates from the Notice of Institution. The Board resets them when motions are pending, which is routine.

Round one, in one paragraph

On November 27, 2024, Take-Two opposed BrockStar Media Corp.'s application to register BROCKSTAR MEDIA for marketing services, pleading thirty registrations and applications, Reg. No. 2,855,543 among them. The applicant answered himself, declined a seven-term coexistence proposal, and told Take-Two's counsel in writing that he would challenge its registrations one at a time. Take-Two withdrew. The Board dismissed the opposition with prejudice on June 27, 2025, and BROCKSTAR MEDIA registered on July 22, 2025. The full timeline, with docket citations.

How we got here, in my words

Opinion. This section is the petitioner's own account and characterization; the docket facts it rests on are linked above.

I have played Rockstar games since the 1990s. I own every one of them, and I am waiting for Grand Theft Auto VI like everyone else. When I named my company BrockStar, I was a fan with a last name that happened to rhyme.

In November 2024, with no letter, no phone call and no warning, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto filed a thirty-mark opposition against a marketing agency in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. I answered it myself. Their lawyers sent seven conditions for leaving me alone, including a logo redesign and advance consent to their own filings in my class. I said no to all seven and told them in writing that I would challenge their registrations one at a time. Two days later they withdrew, and I watched them tuck tail. The Board dismissed the case with prejudice. I wrote the book about it.

Today I made the first move. I expect this to take years, and I am fine with that. We have the research and the reasons to go after this registration, and others, to protect our brand, and for that matter the brands of the other small companies they have pointed these marks at. Everyone knows the only way to handle a bully is to hit him square in the nose. Tommy Vercetti would understand.

What this site will and will not say

• This page reports what is on the docket and in the USPTO's records, and links to it. It does not predict the outcome.
• Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. and its counsel, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, may respond; any response will be published in full and linked from this page. Write to [email protected].
• Nothing here is legal or investment advice. Every case turns on its own record.