A new trademark has been filed by Mytona Fntastic, which poses the question – is The Day Before getting a name change?
With The Day Before’s release date of November 10 fast approaching and the fact it still hasn’t returned to Steam and there’s been no update to the court case surrounding the use of The Day Before name, I decided to pay the United States Patent and Trademark Office website a visit. I found that on August 3, 2023, Mytona Fntastic, the newly-formed company between Mytona and Fntastic that handles its trademarks, filed a trademark for the name Dayworld.
The trademark listing has a myriad of categories that the filing covers, but the few that stand out are downloadable game software, computer game software downloadable from a global computer network, downloadable computer game software for use on mobile devices, and downloadable video game programs, leaving no doubt that this is video game related.
I am no trademark expert, but the filing looks the same as the company’s filing for The Day Before, aside from Dayworld being in the processing phase. Perhaps the most notable bit of info is that Mytona Fntastic has stated in the filing that intends to use this trademark, but this could simply be how these things are done.
Where things get a little interesting is that Dayworld is also a trilogy of books written by American author Philip José Farmer, which was first published in 1985. I couldn’t find any trademark for Dayworld books on the USPTO (in fact, Mytona Fntastic’s was the only one), whereas there are several for The Day Before, including current trademark holder Sun Jae Lee, so it’s unknown whether the Dayworld filing will see resistance from the book’s publisher Putnam Publishing Group, which is owned by the Penguin Group.
It was clear from our exclusive interview with Fntastic back in June that the studio’s preference would be to keep The Day Before name, with co-founders Eduard and Aisen Gotovtsev saying it is “an indisputable fact” that Fntastic was the first company to use The Day Before name when it comes to video games, and that they believed they would be successful in their legal attempts to win the rights to the name.
So perhaps the Dayworld name is merely a backup, just in case Fntastic loses the legal battle. However, according to court filings, the current status of the court case is suspended, which was updated on August 9, 2023. This could mean that Fntastic needs to cut its losses and push forward with a new name given it hasn’t budged from its November 10, 2023 release date. Much like I’m not a trademark expert, I’m also not a lawyer, so time will tell what the new trademark filing really means.
In other Fntastic news, Continent, the Discord competitor app it launched a few months ago has seemingly vanished from existence, with the official website redirecting to Fntastic’s website and the X account no longer active. The trademark for this is still active and listed under Fntastic, so who knows why the plug has been pulled.
What do you make of the new trademark filing news? Or the name Dayworld? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
