In the last few days there has been a lot of excitement about a trademark application for the term "Cyberpunk" from CD Projekt Red. With Witcher 3, the studio has produced one of the biggest RPG titles in recent years. Today there was a tweet with the explanation about Cyberpunk, Cyberpunk 2077 and Copyright.

What exactly is Cyberpunk / Cyberpunk 2077?

Cyberpunk is a genre term in science fiction and describes a rather dystopian development of mankind. It has been in use since the 1990s to describe, for example, the "Neuromancer" trilogy by William Gibson. The future is described in it very dark and full of violence, people are ruled and exploited by huge corporations. The only excuse is cyberspace, a kind of 3D visual internet. The hackers can log into this using neural interfaces and use it to fight the corporations.

Cyberpunk is a really broad field and a copyright claim would have serious consequences. The outcry in the community was based on fears that CD Projekt Red with its trademark claim would be able to ban any content based on Cyberpunkt. This would include fanfiction, books, games, anything.

CD Projekt Red is now countering these, sometimes somewhat exaggerated, allegations with a Twitter statement. The publisher announces that their only concern is to protect their next game with the title "Cyberpunk 2077". A purely passive protection of your investment and work.
In other words, there will be no offensive use of the trademark. The Witcher 3 publishers will not bring copyright lawsuits to the Internet and any media.

Not all trademarks are copyrights / patents

In this context it is also declared that a trademark is not a patent or copyright. A trademark ensures the CD Projekt Red in the case of a possible successor, e.g. Cyberpunk 2078 or 2088, which has the right to use the name. Without this protection, any company could theoretically secure the rights and thus block a successor or force a name change.

Another factor in favor of CD Projekt Red is that they have already protected the Cyberpunk trademark in the USA since 2011. So far no actions have resulted from this. For example, if you want to set a game in the cyberpunk world, nothing stands in the way. As long as the name does not have a deliberate resemblance to Cyberpunk 2077, there should be no complaints.

Information about Cyberpunk trademark. pic.twitter.com/4mufRCp9Gf

- CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) April 6, 2017