Capcom’s Recent Trademarks Hint At Classic Resident Evil Remake

The Resident Evil series is the world’s best-known horror game series. The creators of the series, Capcom, have been actively working on releasing new games as well as remakes of the old games of the series from the early to late 2000s. Remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3 have already been released in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

The remake of Resident Evil 4, while announced in June 2022, has been in the works for 4 years now. It is scheduled to release next year in March. Now, the speculation of another possible remake of the series has arisen after Capcom applied for the registration of two trademarks.

MAJOR TAKEAWAYS 

• Capcom has applied for the registration of two trademarks rising speculation of a possible remake of new-gen Resident Evil games.
• The applications were filed for S.T.A.R.S. Dep Raccoon Police and Resident Evil Director’s Cut.
• The company had already registered the trademark for the latter back in 1998. It was later canceled in 2012 due to non-use.
• It was possibly filed for the re-release of the first game of the series in 1997. It was released under Resident Evil: Director’s Cut, the same title as the trademark.
• But this new trademark has been filed under different categories than the first, raising speculations of a possible new remake.

The applications were filed for the registration of S.T.A.R.S. DEP RACCOON POLICE and RESIDENT EVIL DIRECTOR’S CUT. The first trademark application is for the logo of the Raccoon police department. It has been filed under classes 09, 025, and 028.

It includes categories such as games, game content such as DLC, clothing, and electronic products. But this is not the cause of much scrutiny. The main cause of the contention is the second trademark application.

The application for the registration of the DIRECTOR’S CUT trademark is filed in classes 09 and 041. The categories it has been filed under include downloadable games, recorded game software, arcade machines, and gaming accessories. It also includes online video games for consoles and mobile.

But this is not the first time Capcom has filed for this trademark. The Japanese gaming conglomerate first applied for its registration back in 1998.

And prior to the application, Capcom had released Resident Evil: Director’s Cut. It was a major re-release of the first game of the series to compensate for the delay in the release of Resident Evil 2.

The trademark registration was later canceled in 2012 under section 8 of the trademark law. It states that trademark registration can be annulled due to non-use. But the first registration was filed under the “computer game for arcade and console” categories only.

In light of this, the new trademark application is definitely different from the first. Though the purpose is unclear, some have speculated that this could pave the way for Capcom to work on the remakes of new-gen Resident Evil games namely Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.

Nevertheless, we can not be sure about any of the information until we hear from Capcom itself. So until then, we recommend to our readers that these speculations be taken with a grain of salt.

What do you think? What is the purpose of these trademark filings from Capcom? Discuss in the comments section below.

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