Nintendo has filed a trademark for the term Hyrule in Japan, Europe, and the United States. The first thing that comes to mind is that Nintendo is just trying to protect Hyrule Warriors, but the trademark would not actually protect the Japanese version of the game and the trademarks are not currently active, suggesting it could be for future ideas. There appears to be a hiccup with it in the United States, but they are working through it currently.

The real question here is why they are trademarking the term at all. While Nintendo does file trademarks that they ultimately end up not using, they also don’t do it unless they happen to have an idea that would use the term. Could they be planning to have a Hyrule Warriors 2? What about other Zelda related spinoff games? At this point we can only guess. Here’s the United States filing:

Word Mark HYRULE
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Programs for consumer video game machines; optical discs, CD-ROMs recorded with programs for consumer video game machines; programs for hand-held games with liquid crystal displays; downloadable or installable programs and additional data for consumer video game machines; recorded compact discs; downloadable and storable image files
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 86429498
Filing Date October 21, 2014
Current Basis 44D
Original Filing Basis 44D
Owner (APPLICANT) Nintendo Co., Ltd. CORPORATION JAPAN 11-1, Hokotate-cho, Kamitoba, Minami-ku Kyoto-shi, Kyoto JAPAN 601-8501
Attorney of Record Jerald E. Nagae, Reg. No. 29,418
Priority Date September 8, 2014
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

You can check out the other region trademarks for the term here. The amazing fan art above can be found here.

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