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Because of their names’ closeness, the word game Wordle and the geography game Worldle have become embroiled in a legal battle. Wordle, created by Josh Wardle in 2021 and then purchased by the New York Times for a significant amount in 2022, has become incredibly well-known. Players get six chances to guess a five-letter word in this game. Where Worldle is a geography based game where players also get 6 chances but to guess a country.
The New York Times claims that the two are highly similar, not only in name, but also in appearance and advertising, and that Worldle is confusingly similar . A “likelihood of confusion” arises when comparable trade marks make it likely for customers to assume that the goods or services are from the same source.
Trademarkroom verdict
A win win win for New York Times. Its just too similar and while the creator claims the games are not similar, the legal point here is that they chose the name of an established game to create as much interest as possible—in the UK, we call it passing off. They will almost certainly have to rebrand in my h_m_l_ o_i_nion
Michael@trademarkroom.com
