Overview
- Richard Garriott told reporters this week that he plans to use a US law that lets creators reclaim transferred copyrights after 35 years to recover the Ultima copyrights in 2027.
- EA recently filed new trademark applications for Ultima, and those filings prompted Inside Games to contact Garriott about his plans.
- Copyright and trademark protect different things, so even if Garriott regains the copyrights he cannot automatically use the plain 'Ultima' brand because EA appears to control the trademark.
- Garriott has suggested a branding workaround such as 'Lord British’s Ultima' and said he will give more public details at Dragon Con in September, but no legal transfer or new product has been filed or announced yet.
- Ultima was sold to EA in 1992 and has been largely dormant as a mainline series while Ultima Online remains active under EA/Broadsword, so the possible split between reclaimed creative rights and EA’s trademark could produce separate, concurrent versions of the IP.