Watch Dogs trademark reinstated after fraudulent attempt to drop it

The United States Patent and Trademark Office announced today that Ubisoft's rights to the Watch Dogs trademark have been reinstated after an unknown party attempted to abandon the trademark on behalf of the company.

On Feb. 3, a filing was made to the USPTO to abandon the Watch Dogs trademark. This filing appeared to be made by Ubisoft, the creators of the Watch Dogs video game. It was later revealed that the request for abandonment was fraudulent, and Ubisoft had in fact not filed such a request.

"Here, the circumstances are extraordinary," the USPTO said in its review of the case. "An unknown party who lacked authority executed the purported abandonment of the application. Although the request appears to have been sent by petitioner, petitioner declared that it did not submit the request and has every reason to believe that this filing was fraudulent.

"The Director finds the application should not have been abandoned. Pursuant to supervisory authority provided by 37 C.F.R. §2.146(a)(3), the Director permits the reinstatement of the application."