Driver Madness

On 24th April 2009, UBISOFT HOLDINGS INC registered a new trademark for the next installment of driver with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

According to the report the next driver game will be titled DRIVER : THE RECRUIT and is registered to be used with

Game software and electronic game programs, namely, software games recorded on CD-ROM and digital video discs for computers; software games recorded on CD-ROMs, digital video discs, and cartridges for console and individual, portable gaming systems; software games that are downloadable from a remote computer site and electronic game software for mobile phones, personal digital assistants, and handheld computers

Details of this report filed with the USPTO can be found here.

This page was generated by the TARR system on 2009-04-25 21:01:08 ET

Serial Number: 77718159

Registration Number: (NOT AVAILABLE)

Mark
(words only): DRIVER : THE RECRUIT

Standard Character claim: Yes

Current Status: Newly filed application, not yet assigned to an examining attorney.

Date of Status: 2009-04-24

Filing Date: 2009-04-21

Transformed into a National Application: No

Registration Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)

Register: Principal

Law Office Assigned: (NOT AVAILABLE)

Current Location: 011 -Initial Review/Serialization Branch(Mailroom)

Date In Location: 2009-04-24

LAST APPLICANT(S)/OWNER(S) OF RECORD

1. UBISOFT HOLDINGS INC

Address:
UBISOFT HOLDINGS INC
625 THIRD STREET THIRD FLOOR
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94017
United States
Legal Entity Type: Corporation
State or Country of Incorporation: Delaware

GOODS AND/OR SERVICES
International Class: 009
Class Status: Active
Game software and electronic game programs, namely, software games recorded on CD-ROM and digital video discs for computers; software games recorded on CD-ROMs, digital video discs, and cartridges for console and individual, portable gaming systems; software games that are downloadable from a remote computer site and electronic game software for mobile phones, personal digital assistants, and handheld computers
Basis: 1(b)
First Use Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)
First Use in Commerce Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
(NOT AVAILABLE)

MADRID PROTOCOL INFORMATION
(NOT AVAILABLE)

PROSECUTION HISTORY:

2009-04-24 - New Application Office Supplied Data Entered In Tram

2009-04-24 - New Application Entered In Tram


ATTORNEY/CORRESPONDENT INFORMATION
Correspondent:
MARC MURACCINI; UBISOFT ENTERTAINMENT
28 RUE ARMAND CARREL
MONTREUIL SOUS BOIS
93108
FRANCE

It has been a while since we've herd anything from Ubisoft Reflections ever since their interview with BBC. Saying there working on a new driver game when it appears they were working on Emergency Heroes.

Then were once again doubted about a new driver game when the UK Forum Manager recently announced the following messages on Ubisoft Forums.

ms-kleaneasy wrote:As explained in other threads there is currently no information to suggest a new Driver game, should that change I will let you all know but for now consider anything to the contrary rumour.

ms-kleaneasy wrote:There hasn’t been any announcements to suggest any new Driver game, should that change I will let you know but as it stands no, sorry

Hopefully this news is enough to reassure us that there is really a driver title in the works to be released sometime in the near future.

Driver: The Recruit?

Does that mean that we will not play as Tanner, but as a rookie driver?

Yeah, most likely.
There could even be an appearance of Tanner teaching recruits.
I decided to open a new topic for speculation on what this title could mean in terms of gameplay and storyline.
See Driver: The Recruit (Speculation) and post some ideas if you wish.

Man, I hope this ends out good.

This is making me wonder about the release date of the next Driver...

it could be that they have nearly finished the development, so they have come up with the perfect name for it now and they are nearly ready to release it, which could mean a fall 2009 release...

or I might just be getting my hopes up too high...

Smiler wrote:or I might just be getting my hopes up too high...

Unfortunately this could be the beginning of development.
Phasing past the concept stages, as they want to make sure no one else tries to create a movie, game with the same title although this is highly unlikely.

I'd agree by saying a release date feels near.

So, does the register of this trademark mean the development is beginning or is almost complete.

If we look at the date the trademark was registered for DRIV3R then it may give us an idea.

The date it was filed was May 11, 2004 and it was released on June 21, 2004 (US).

This is about a month and a half.

E3 is 6 weeks away, so it would seem the game will be released this year.

Links
DRIV3R Trademark
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f= ... 4ptu4.8.47

E3 Website
http://www.e3expo.com/

emmetmcl wrote: E3 is 6 weeks away.

Ahhh... I didn't think about that... they may wanna actually show D:TR at E3 then!

I hope so!!!.



Guys Guys!!... do me a favour... Stop getting me hyped up lol

I'm not with too much hype. It might be shown at E3, but I'm not with too much hope. Just the usual hope.

I lost all excitement after having a little think about D:TR last night...

I was thinking that, the majoritry of game sequels which have a name rarther than a number basically have the same Chassis to the previous game, but with a few minor fixes and tweaks to the gameplay...

where as the games with a number usually (in the modern day) have a complete upgrade to every part of the Game...


So I'm not so excited for the next title now...

partly because all that D: PL was, was D3 with majority of the required fixes... and even then D: PL didn't exacly give me that same buzz as I got from the original Driver back in the day... so D: PL with a few minor improvements (and fixes) isn't enough for me...

But what about Reflections trend of two games on a similar engine,gap of largess, then two more on a new 1???

Driver of DOOM wrote:But what about Reflections trend of two games on a similar engine,gap of largess, then two more on a new 1???

Maybe....

I hope that U/R can show us some great improvements at this upcoming E3 this year!.

1UP wrote:It’s been three years since Driver: Parallel Lines, Atari’s last crack at the franchise before Ubisoft acquired the license and development staff. Now it seems they’re at last about ready to show what they’ve made of it, as Superannuation (via Joystiq) has picked up on a new trademark for “Driver: The Recruit” on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database.

Obviously nothing is known about the game yet, other than that this at least appears to be title for it. As Joystiq notes, it was revealed a fifth Driver game was in production at Ubisoft since last summer, so couple that with what seems to be the selection of an official title, and it looks likely that Ubisoft might be gearing up to give the game some exposure soon (maybe an unveiling at E3 in June?).

The original Driver on the PlayStation was regarded at the time as the closest thing to a 3D Grand Theft Auto there was… until Rockstar made Grand Theft Auto III for the PS2. Since then, the Driver series has failed to make much of an impact with each successive sequel, so it’ll be interesting to see if Ubisoft can turn things around.

Just a little more information, I found somewhere.
Wasn't from 1UP, but content was from 1UP.
Just one of those bot sites that crawl other websites and copy their news.

I don't mean to stop the party about Driver possibly being released at E3, but read this:

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/19492/Ubi ... inancials/

It says a few games that Ubisoft are planning to release in 2009/10 and there is no mention of Driver.

But, where most of the games listed there already known to be in development or are Ubisoft just waiting until E3, or until their trademark has been approved to announce Driver?

They say 7 franchised titles, and in the list there's 6. It could be a new Driver, as it's already "franchised". But it could be another game as well.

Ubisoft wrote:− 7 franchised games, including Assassin's Creed® 2, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Conviction, Rabbids Go Home(TM), Red Steel® 2, Ghost Recon® 4 and Anno(TM) 1404.

Never noticed that, let's just hope it's Driver.

When i found this out.
I went just typed in http://www.drivertherecruit.com to see if it existed it didn't.
So then I checked whois information and the domain wasn't registered. I was so close to registering the domain, but didn't want to waste the money.

And for a moment (when Nick brought it to my attention) it appeared they registered it. Imagine if I had registered it first and then they might pay me for it .

But then I realized that the domain was created four days before I created this news topic and my whois provider was probably out of date .

http://www.ip-adress.com/whois/drivertherecruit.com

NOTICE: The expiration date displayed in this record is the date the
registrar's sponsorship of the domain name registration in the registry is
currently set to expire. This date does not necessarily reflect the expiration
date of the domain name registrant's agreement with the sponsoring
registrar. Users may consult the sponsoring registrar's Whois database to
view the registrar's reported date of expiration for this registration.


The Registry database contains ONLY .COM, .NET, .EDU domains and
Registrars.--- #YAML:1.0
# GANDI Registrar whois database for .COM, .NET, .ORG., .INFO, .BIZ, .NAME
#
# Access and use restricted pursuant to French law on personal data.
# Copy of whole or part of the data without permission from GANDI
# is strictly forbidden.
# The sole owner of a domain is the entity described in the relevant
# 'domain:' record.
# Domain ownership disputes should be settled using ICANN's Uniform Dispute
# Resolution Policy: http://www.icann.org[whois]/udrp/udrp.htm
# For inquiries about 'by policy' protection, please check directly
# with the appropriate registry (Eurid, AFNIC)
#
# Acces et utilisation soumis a la legislation francaise sur
# les donnees personnelles.
# Copie de tout ou partie de la base interdite sans autorisation de GANDI.
# Le possesseur d'un domaine est l'entite decrite dans
# l'enregistrement 'domain:' correspondant.
# Un desaccord sur la possession d'un nom de domaine peut etre resolu
# en suivant la Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy de l'ICANN:
# http://www.icann.org[whois]/udrp/udrp.htm
# Pour obtenir les informations en status 'Protected by policy', contactez
# directement le registre concerne (Eurid, AFNIC)
#
# 2009-05-03 17:38:18 CEST

domain: drivertherecruit.com[whois]
reg_created: 2009-04-20 15:59:50
expires: 2010-04-20 15:59:50
created: 2009-04-20 17:59:53
changed: 2009-04-20 17:59:53
transfer-prohibited: yes
ns0: nic1.ubisoft.com[whois]
ns1: nic2.ubisoft.com[whois]
owner-c:
nic-hdl: UHI3-GANDI
owner-name: UBISOFT HOLDINGS Inc
organisation: UBISOFT HOLDINGS Inc
person: UBISOFT HOLDINGS Inc
address: '625 Third Street, 3rd floor'
zipcode: CA94107
city: San Francisco
country: United States of America
phone: +33.199999999
fax: ''
email: [whois]
lastupdated: 2009-04-20 17:54:47
admin-c:
nic-hdl: UHI3-GANDI
owner-name: UBISOFT HOLDINGS Inc
organisation: UBISOFT HOLDINGS Inc
person: UBISOFT HOLDINGS Inc
address: '625 Third Street, 3rd floor'
zipcode: CA94107
city: San Francisco
country: United States of America
phone: +33.199999999
fax: ''
email: [whois]
lastupdated: 2009-04-20 17:54:47
tech-c:
nic-hdl: UHI3-GANDI
owner-name: UBISOFT HOLDINGS Inc
organisation: UBISOFT HOLDINGS Inc
person: UBISOFT HOLDINGS Inc
address: '625 Third Street, 3rd floor'
zipcode: CA94107
city: San Francisco
country: United States of America
phone: +33.199999999
fax: ''
email: [whois]
lastupdated: 2009-04-20 17:54:47
bill-c:
nic-hdl: USE1-GANDI
organisation: UbiSoft Entertainment
person: UbiSoft Entertainment
address: 28 RUE ARMAND CARREL
zipcode: 93100
city: MONTREUIL
country: France
phone: +33.148185000
fax: +33.148185973
email: [whois]
lastupdated: 2009-03-16 11:03:13

So what does that mean?

It means ubisoft owns drivertherecruit.com
It also means that it is very likely that the next driver is going to be called Driver: The Recruit and now we can check drivertherecruit.com daily until ubisoft put something there .

It's great discovery, which had hoped to update the web jeje.
http://whois.domaintools.com/drivertherecruit.com

It wasn't really that hard to find, I just thought that they were bound to set up a site and typed in Driver the recruit.com... and it worked.

hmm don't open the champagne too early this could not be the driver 5 that we are waiting for it could be some portable ds game or some cellphone mobile game.

Nevertheless it is something to keep an eye on. Nice find!

There is no way that this is mobile/DS game for the following reasons:

Nimrod are involved and they produce music for video games which are on XBOX, PS2, PS3, PSP, etc, not mobiles and DS unless there is a port.

Also, Reflections were looking for people to work on driving games that are for PS3 and 360, and Emergency Heroes (which is also a driving game they made) is only on Wii.

A developer at Reflections I e-mailed said they were working on a new Driver game, and as we know, Reflections don't make the mobile games.

I think this is more than enough evidence to support the fact that this is not a mobile phone game.

emmetmcl wrote:There is no way that this is mobile/DS game for the following reasons:

Nimrod are involved and they produce music for video games which are on XBOX, PS2, PS3, PSP, etc, not mobiles and DS unless there is a port.

Also, Reflections were looking for people to work on driving games that are for PS3 and 360, and Emergency Heroes (which is also a driving game they made) is only on Wii.

A developer at Reflections I e-mailed said they were working on a new Driver game, and as we know, Reflections don't make the mobile games.

I think this is more than enough evidence to support the fact that this is not a mobile phone game.

+1

btw, isn't it GameLoft who make the Mobile Phone versions of the Driver titles?

Yeah, they made Driver LA Undercover anyway.

Yeah, I agree with what emmetmcl has stated.
and yeah, well gameloft made Driver: LA Undercover before that Glu made the other driver mobile games (Driver: Vegas, Driv3r: Mobile).

But Glu primarily worked with Atari.
While Gameloft works with Ubisoft.
and Gameloft continue to make Ubisoft mobile games as far as I know.

http://play.tm/news/24774/c-o-p-the-rec ... y-ubisoft/

This may have nothing to do with Driver: The Recruit but with E3 only a few days away, this certainly seems like it could have a possible connection.

Huh... Is it means that Ubisoft starting a new franchise title entitled "The Recruit?" I hope not...

I would imagine that if they've TM'd both Driver TR and C.O.P TR, it could be that C.O.P is a spinoff that'll be released simutaneously...


well, I hope so anyway...

Yeah I just noticed this.
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regs ... y=77740826

Was readin'
http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6210351/

Ubisoft files Killing Day, Driver trademarks

French publisher puts in USPTO claims for long-dormant first-person shooter, racing franchises.


Ubisoft also filed applications for the names "Driver: The Recruit" and "C.O.P.: The Recruit." In 2006, Ubisoft picked up the Driver license from Atari, which unloaded the IP and its developer Reflections Interactive for €19 million (then $24 million, now $26 million). As part of a BBC interview in June 2008, Ubisoft revealed that Reflections was at work on a new installment in the Driver franchise, the first since 2006's lackluster Driver: Parallel Lines.

As with other applications of this ilk, all three filings carried descriptors for "game software and electronic game programs, namely, software games recorded on CD-ROM and digital video discs for computers." Ubisoft had not responded to requests for comment on the filings as of press time.

Conveniently enough, the filings come as the industry gears up for the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo, which runs June 1-4 in Los Angeles. Ubisoft is expected to deliver its E3 press conference at 5 p.m. on Monday, June 1, and GameSpot will be on hand to report on news from the event as it happens.