Studio announces Glover 2, but doesn't have rights to make the game
Glover was an odd game from the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 era that had you controlling a hand that was trying to guide a ball to a goal, requiring you to change the ball to different weights in order to get past puzzles. It was considered a financial failure, and publisher Hasbro ended development of the sequel before it could be released. It went on to become a cult classic, loved by a handful of people that had played the game in their childhood. So when the German studio Golden Mushroom announced a Glover 2 nearly 20 years after the first game, it baffled many. They even took to Reddit, claiming that the game was indeed real, and not a joke. Things got even more confusing when another studio, Piko Interactive joined the fray, saying that they owned the full rights to the Glover series, and were contacting Golden Mushroom Studios about their claim on the IP. Golden Mushroom fired back, saying that they owned and paid to have the trademark of "Glover" transferred to their company, after "extensive research" from their legal team.
And thus things made a lot more sense. While you can have a trademark for a name, that's a different matter entirely as compared to having the copyright. Golden Mushroom can indeed make a game called Glover, but they cannot actually use any IP from the Glover game, as Piko owns the copyright. When the two companies tried to work out a deal, Golden Mushroom backed down, and said they'd be fine with creating a spiritual successor to Glover, instead of an actual sequel.
