Flappy Bird is dead. Long live Flappy Bird. Or is it? The original Flappy Bird has been missing from the Play Store for a little over a week. The game’s creator, Dong Nguyen, decided that he just couldn’t handle the pressure of having people addicted to his immensely profitable mobile game. He removed the game from the Google Play Store as well as the Apple App Store on the 9th of February. The world thought that the game was gone forever, but that may not be the case.
We’ve seen countless knock-offs appear in the Play Store since Flappy Bird was pulled. Google has removed most of those copycats for potential IP infringement, too. We’ve now moved past simple copycat games to full-fledged registered companies trying to snag the Flappy Bird trademark. According to our friend at Phandroid, there are seven companies that want to take over the Flappy Bird IP. When Dong Nguyen gave up the game, he also gave up the rights to the trademark. Since his IP is essentially dead, it’s up for grabs to whoever can lay a valid claim to it. The two earliest claimants have the best shot, merely by being first in line to want to take over what Dong Nguyen walked away from.
A gaming company called adore kv, Inc put in a claim to the abandoned intellectual property on Feburary 9th, the same day that Flappy Bird was pulled down by its creator. Another company that consists Neal Blaak and Alexander Prevoteau also filed a claim on the same day. Those two will have to duke it out for something that they did not create, and adore kv, Inc may have the upper hand. Operating as OneClick Studios, they already have their copy of Flappy Bird submitted to Google, waiting for the USPTO to green light their takeover of the name. If that happens, we see a return of Flappy Bird to the Play Store, albeit a little bit different.
Phandroid spoke the owner of OneClick Studios, Mark Li, and you can read what he had to say here. I’m not a fan of any company piggy backing on someone else’s idea, attempting to ride the wave of popularity that someone else created. But if it works for them, so be it. If any company can lay claim to the Flappy Bird trademark, they stand to make some serious cash.
What do you think? Should we just let Flappy Bird die? Or would you rather see a new company resurrect the dead?