As spotted by Kluwer Trademark Blog, Sony partially lost the trademark for “Vita” due to “non-use” in the EU.
The “Vita” trademark was revoked on September 1. According to the blog, “The trade mark Vita had been registered by Sony for a variety of class 9 items, including “data carriers containing programs” and “audio and/or image carriers (not of paper).””
In 2011, a company called Vieta Audio applied to have this registration revoked. The dispute revolved around “whether a portable gaming console could be classified as a “data carrier containing programs” or an “audio and/or image carrier.””
The news of the “Vita” trademark being revoked follows a year that has seen the death of the handheld console. Earlier this year, Sony announced you would no longer be able to buy games for the PS3, PSP, and Vita digitally. They then reversed that decision, but they have made it more difficult to buy games anyway.
The Vita was never a hugely successful console. Estimates for lifetime sales sit at around 15-16 million units, not much more than the Wii U. Sony never really gave the console the support it needed. The Vita was popular for indie titles in the early days. But as Sony pushed indies onto the PS4, support for the console dwindled even more. While the console received its last new games in July, the handheld is sure to live on through it’s, even if small, incredibly dedicated fanbase.
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Featured Image Credit: Sony