Alright, here's the deal. My friends and I (not fully assembled yet) have wished to start a game for about a year now (development was supposed to start full time this summer). I have been working on the game engine for it in my spare time, and have been making it useable for multiple games (much like Valve's Source is to CS:S, HL2, all the mods...). I've basically adapted the name Addict Engine after a month long creativity block (it was broken by a few jokes about a druggy class). However, I recently (this wasn't on Google before) found that AddictiveSoftware.com is using the name Addict for their spell checker/thesaurus engine, which can be found http://www.addictivesoftware.com/addict.htm . I read up on quite a few articles linked/hosted at this site, and apparently you can trademark the same name as long as it is in different fields. I was wondering if spell checking and a game engine are too close, as they both are real time software programs. Thanks in advance for your replies/just reading this long thing. Oh yes and I almost forgot, I wish to make a client where I can distribute the created games over the internet, much like Valve's Steam does. The UI will be completely different, but I'm not sure if they have a patent or whatnot. I'm using this method because it is the best way that I have found to prevent piracy, force security updates, prevent hackers, and provide an easy to use system for users to get more games for less money.

so long as its your own code and graphics i dont think they can do a thing about it.

Finding a good name is pretty frustrating when your only real tools are the trademark search engine, web search engines, and that stuff. I just got out of school so I can't search on New York Time's papers either.

I'm going to go with my best judgement, based on what I've learned. If I was a customer, I'd think that Addictive Software probably made Addict Engine, as they made Addict Spell Checker and such.

So I'm off to find a different name. Thank's for the help, I'll search to see if Valve has a patent next. EDIT: Nothing came up on any content distribution system, or anything owned by Valve that has anything to do with distribution. I'm not sure about patent applications, as they only allow you to see the published ones, but I will go ahead and code it, and before I release it I will do another patent search.

i know the game infantry has a similar method, you use an application to download the software and files, and infantry has been around since 1998, i dont know how long valve has tho.

Valve has been around since 1996, but steam wasn't created until the new millenia.

UPDATE: apparently the spell checker suite isn't called Addict Engine at all, it was just a term used by a person on the forums. Because it's not registered with the trademark place yet, I'm going to publicly market the name "Addict Engine" so I can protect it if someone does decide they want to use it.

[Edited by - Tsixm on June 22, 2005 1:00:36 PM]