Ubisoft claims trademark for 'Battle Isle' franchise from Blue Byte co-founder

Ubisoft has managed to reclaim the trademark for the "Battle Isle" video games from the original co-founder, Thomas Hertzler. Wasting no time, the company has filed applications at the United States Patent and Trademark Office although no announcements for a new game have yet been made.

Blue Byte started the "Battle Isle" games back in 1991. They were turn-based strategy titles set in the planet Chromos and the series managed to launch several sequels and spin-offs. Today the games are considered a cult hit and were mostly popular in Europe, Dual Shockers reported.

The company that originally owned the trademark was co-founded by Thomas Hertzler and Lothar Schmitt. Blue Byte, however, was later acquired by Ubisoft and Schmitt stepped out of the video game industry. Hertzler, however, kept the trademark for the series and founded his own company, Stratotainment LLC.

The last official game in the series, "Battle Isle: The Andosia War," released as far back as 2000.

A Kickstarter campaign was then launched by Stratotainment to get a new "Blue Isle" game out in the market and was going to be titled "Blue Isle: Threshold Run." However, as the official Kickstarter page reveals, the campaign goal was not met and after several delays the campaign was ended on September 2014.

Stratotainment is currently working on a new game titled "Gamma Protocol," which is currently in closed Alpha testing. The company recently had to let go of the "Battle Isle" trademark given they have not used and have reached the maximum number of extensions possible to keep a hold of it.

Ubisoft has now snatched the trademark back. It is uncertain at this point if Ubisoft will give the original Blue Byte employees the opportunity to make a new game in the series, now that they have been acquired by the company, or if a new team will be handling development.

It is also uncertain if a new game is even being planned but the opportunity is now open.