In an unexpected move, furniture giant Ikea has sent a cease and desist letter to a solo indie developer Letter reviewed by my boxprompted him to make changes to his unreleased Survival horror game set in an Ikea-like furniture store. represent lawyers Ikea claims the game is in trademark infringement because some press outlets have drawn comparisons between their official brand and the game. That The Swedish company has given developer Jacob Shaw just ten days to “change the game and remove all the evidence associated with the famous Ikea stores”.
The store is closed is an unreleased co-op survival game that’s just in its last week a successful Kickstarter campaign that’s raised just over $49,000. Developed by a lone developer going by the studio name Ziggy, the game describes itself as “set in an infinite furniture store”.
“You must craft weapons and build forts to survive the night,” the blurb continues. “Explore the underground SCP labs and build towers in the sky to find a way out.” You know, like in a real Ikea? Crucially, nowhere in the game’s promotional materials, on Steam, during the Kickstarter campaign – anywhere – was the word “Ikea” ever uttered.
Despite this, and despite the fact that the game is absolutely not for sale anywhere, Ikea’s New York attorney Fross Zelnick wrote to Shaw demanding that he completely change everything in the game that might remind people of their brand.
‘Our client found out that you are developing a video game,’The store is closed‘” the legal letter explains, “using indicia associated with the famous IKEA stores without our client’s permission.”
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Then the hurtful aspects of Shaw’s game are listed.
“Their game uses a blue and yellow sign with a Scandinavian name on the store, a blue boxy building, yellow vertically striped shirts identical to those worn by IKEA employees, a gray path on the floor, Furniture that looks like IKEA furniture and product signage that looks like IKEA signage. All of this immediately suggests that the game takes place in an IKEA store.”
Shaw gave me access to an early alpha build of the game where the “blue boxy building” and the “blue and yellow sign” appear in their entirety on the menu screen. After that you don’t see them. There is currently no in-game branding at all. The store is called “STYR.” Clearly a joke spelling of “STORE”, it happens to be a Swedish word meaning “control”. You know what is Not a swedish word? “Ikea.” It’s the initials of its founder, a farm he grew up on, and a nearby village. In particular, stores like Tiffany have a trademark for the color they use in their packaging, so Ikea isn’t entirely out of left field here in a way.
Then there are the claims it has “Furniture that looks like Ikea furniture.” But Shaw denies he designed any furniture with Ikea in mind. “I bought generic furniture asset packs to make this game,” Shaw said, implying that these are furniture that can be included in any game for a price. “I don’t know what that means.” However, the game has a gray path on the ground. It is also It is common for stores to have signs telling the customer where to go.
Ikea’s argument hinges on the game infringing on their trademark because Press sites made the association rather than aligning the game itself with naming Ikea.
One headline reads, “Someone made a survival horror game set at IKEA.” Another headline reads, “The Backrooms meets Sons of the Forest in a new IKEA horror game.”
Those were the two headlines we could find, but it’s possible there are more. The letter also includes the subheadings of these stories as part of the evidence and then elaborates:
“In addition, numerous comments from readers of these stories make an association with IKEA stores.”
Based on all of the above, Shaw was notified that his “unauthorized use of the IKEA identifiers constitutes unfair competition and false advertising under Section 43(a) of the U.S. Trademark Act, 15 U.S. C § 1125(a) and unfair competition and false advertising laws.” .”
The lawyers then tell the developer, “Of course, you can easily make a video game set in a furniture store that doesn’t look or suggest an IKEA store.” The alleged game development experts go on to explain, “You can easily make changes to your game, to avoid these issues, especially since you don’t plan to release the game before 2024.”
she Then immediately inform Shaw that he has “ten working days from the date of this letter” to make all these changes and remove all of their alleged “indices”. Gray paths and such. The game is not yet for sale.
Ikea is a company that looked Earning $25.4 billion last year, and Jacob Shaw is a guy in the UK who tried to raise £10,000 ($11,575) on Kickstarter Shaw says he has no choice but to comply. While he seeks legal advice, he is certain he must capitulate given the costs involved in a dispute.
“I wanted to spend the last week of my Kickstarter preparing an update for all new alpha testers,” Shaw told Kotaku. “But now I really need to overhaul the entire look of the game so I don’t get sued.”
Trademark owners clearly have a legal obligation to protect them lest they lose them and have their trademark recognized as generic. Presumably that’s part of Ikea’s motivation here, overblown as it may seem to anyone unfamiliar with trademark law. Hopefully simply removing the blue box building on the menu screen really should be enough to get rid of the rest of this nonsense, not least because the US indulges in far more reasonable allowances for spoofing than the UK
We contacted Ikea in both the US (where the threats originate) and the UK (where the game is based), along with brand experts, to ask for a comment and will update if they reply.
