This is a news that relieves the team and will please many of you, we know. Today's ticket provides an update on this matter (hoping that this will be the last ticket on this subject), as we want our community to know what's going on. Perhaps our story will serve as a lesson to others, I hope so. The life of an independent developer is already tough enough, we didn't need this on top of it. After several months of having our morale completely shattered, we are moving forward and are on track to finish this game, which will be memorable!

At first, a Takedown

In December 2023, we received a complaint from a supposed "rights holder" who had registered the trademark "Noreya" in a field of activity unrelated to video games. Despite this blatant deviation and our prior rights in the United States, the Steam team considered it a trademark infringement and forced us to change the name. Failing to find an agreement within the given timeframe, the game was removed from the platform.

Name Change to "Noseka"

After several weeks of negotiations, it was accepted that the term "Noseka" was acceptable, and we therefore changed the name of the game. Immediately, we initiated legal proceedings for copyright infringement and filed the name "Noreya: The Gold Project" specifically for video games and other cultural and artistic domains. It is obvious that there is no connection between our game and the activity of our attacker, but the registration alone is not sufficient; one must arm oneself with patience and wait several months (or even years) for such a case to be resolved in court.

Return to the Name "Noreya"

This took several months, despite our rightful claim and intellectual property. We had to reach an agreement with the attacker to be able to reuse the name of the game as quickly as possible. Even if it may seem unfair to you, that's the way it is, and we are not big/known enough to defend ourselves better than that. It will take a few more weeks for our trademark application to be finalized. The only valid proof of our initial right. Regarding the impact on the game, the attacker demanded that the "German" language be removed from the game on the platforms. A request that may seem unfair and unnecessary to you. I totally agree because the impact on him is completely invisible; it's just a matter of principle to bother us, and in the end, the victims are the community. The "German" option will therefore be unchecked on Steam, and the game will no longer appear in German stores. We apologize to our German community. We will look for a way to open the game to language modding so that the German community can translate the game and add it via a mod, but not us. This whole affair took a lot of time because we had to register the trademark under "video game" classification, then wait for it to be validated and registered. Despite this trademark registration, Valve still required confirmation from our attacker. This case will have had a significant impact on the game's image and reputation, and we hope it's now in a box that will stay in the past. Unfortunately, this kind of case can happen to any other independent game company since very few register their names internationally due to lack of resources and knowledge. We obviously hope that no one else will suffer a similar case, and our inbox remains open if you (or someone you know) ever have to undergo the same action. The takedown is the worst thing that can happen to a game, and Valve's lawyers will not negotiate anything with you regardless of your legitimacy; they will go for the simplest solution according to a standardized procedure that apparently does not follow trademark law but ensures no risk is taken by the company (which remains understandable, albeit unfair).

Could this happen to another game?

I dare say yes. Any game that has not a registered trademark would be forced to change its name or disappear. Perhaps this is different for a company in the United States; in that case, perhaps Valve would recognize prior rights. But who can prove this until a similar situation happens? In our case, we had American customers long before the opposing trademark existed, but that does not seem sufficient to assert our prior rights. What is certain is: a lot of games that I personally love, have absolutely zero protection and could be the victim of trolling and unfair attacks, just like us. In my opinion, the lesson to be learned from this case is as follows:

• Either you spend money protecting a name that may never bring you anything
• Or you accept that your prior rights and intellectual property are violated in favor of someone who seeks to harm you on principle / money

"Noreya" is a name that was difficult to find and validate for our game, months of scriptwriting work and logo research. Perhaps it was a bit "overkill" for an indie game after all. One thing's for sure, the Catalan origins of the name "Noreya" could not have led us to suspect that someone in a Germanic country would decide to make it their flagship and attack us with a legal plan. So even the smallest probability can happen, hopefully the wheel will turn in our favor now. Update 0.9 is coming soon! And more good news is on the way ^-^. Once again, thank you all for your support.