Kaiju Combat Kickstarter hit by trademark infringement claim

Collectible card game giant Wizards of the Coast has reportedly filed a trademark infringement claim against Sunstone Games, the studio behind the recent Kaiju Combat Kickstarter. According to a forum post from Sunstone's Simon Strange, Wizards of the Coast claims that Sunstone is infringing of its trademark of the word "Kaijudo," a card game for which Wizards has also secured video game rights. Strange responded to the claims, stating, "'Kaiju' is an ordinary word, being used in its ordinary context. The copyright of 'Kaijudo' cannot extend to the word 'Kaiju.'" Although the original Kaiju Combat Kickstarter failed to achieve its pledge target, a second attempt saw Sunstone successfully passing its $100,000 target. However, the Kickstarter page is now inaccessible, with the website noting that the game "is the subject of an intellectual property dispute and is currently unavailable."