Ikea threatens legal action over SCP "Infinite Ikea" game

DanarchyReigns · Oct 31, 2022

Ikea Threatens Legal Action Over Furniture Store Survival Game

Solo indie developer Jacob Shaw is trapped in a real-life survival horror experience with the Swedish furniture giant.

www.pcmag.com

Not the first Infinite Ikea game, but one that's on the way.
Here's the Steam page.

The Store is Closed on Steam

The Store is Closed is a coop survival game set in an infinite furniture store. When the lights go out, the staff attack. You’ll need to craft weapons, and build fortifications to survive the night. Explore the underground SCP laboratories and build towers to the sky to find a way out.

store.steampowered.com

Why even sue? It's not like it's going to harm your business. It doesn't even use the Ikea name.

Yuntu · Oct 31, 2022

But the store is not even called Ikea in the game. What legal ground do they have here?

Perzeval · Oct 31, 2022

They are using ikea's likeness/design. But yeah, idk.

Rassilon · Oct 31, 2022

Yuntu said:
But the store is not even called Ikea in the game. What legal ground do they have here?

I supose they decided the design aspects aren't different enough

If the devs made the design more distinct, they'd get away with it for sure.

IKEA said:
Your game uses a blue and yellow sign with a Scandinavian name on the store, a blue box-like building, yellow vertical stiped shirts identical to those worn by IKEA personnel, a gray path on the floor, furniture that looks like IKEA furniture, and product signage that looks like IKEA signage. All the foregoing immediately suggest that the game takes place in an IKEA store.

apocat · Oct 31, 2022

This seems absurd. Even if there is obviously meant to be some parallells here, making a scary intepretation of something that is part of everyday life is par for the course when it comes to horror. And while it certainly alludes to IKEA, there doen't seem to be any explicit ties to it in any way or form.

SteveWinwood · Oct 31, 2022

Yuntu said:
But the store is not even called Ikea in the game. What legal ground do they have here?

None, it all easily falls under parody and fair use, but it doesn't mean they can't scare some poor dude into changing it away from their store.

MorshuTheTrader · Oct 31, 2022

Doubt they have any real ground, this could easily be considered parody/satire.

Sabretooth · Oct 31, 2022

Wonder if they'll also go after Horrorstör.

MaiorZero · Oct 31, 2022

Mesoian · Oct 31, 2022

That's spurious. They have no leg to stand on here.

DiipuSurotu · Oct 31, 2022

Lmao

Just rename the game "Infinite Furniture Store" or something

DanarchyReigns · Oct 31, 2022

DiipuSurotu said:
Lmao

Just rename the game "Infinite Furniture Store" or something

The game isn't even called "Infinite Ikea", that's the name of the original SCP.
It's called "The Store is Closed".

DiipuSurotu · Oct 31, 2022

DanarchyReigns said:
The game isn't even called "Infinite Ikea", that's the name of the original SCP.
It's called "The Store is Closed".

SCP?

Also thread title is kinda misleading then

Bigg · Oct 31, 2022

Perzeval said:
They are using ikea's likeness/design. But yeah, idk.

....It's a parody. They're parodying Ikea's likeness and design, they're not using it 1 to 1. There shouldn't be any issue from a legal standpoint.

Ultron · Oct 31, 2022

Probably just don't use the Blue and Yellow color scheme and they'd be fine. It's too on the nose.

As the complaint in the article itself says:

"Your game uses a blue and yellow sign with a Scandinavian name on the store, a blue box-like building, yellow vertical stiped shirts identical to those worn by IKEA personnel, a gray path on the floor, furniture that looks like IKEA furniture, and product signage that looks like IKEA signage. All the foregoing immediately suggest that the game takes place in an IKEA store."

DiipuSurotu · Oct 31, 2022

MorshuTheTrader said:
Doubt they have any real ground, this could easily be considered parody/satire.

Bigg said:
....It's a parody. They're parodying Ikea's likeness and design, they're not using it 1 to 1. There shouldn't be any issue from a legal standpoint.

Isn't the "parody is okay" thing a US thing?

Lowblood · Oct 31, 2022

I feel like the color scheme for the exterior of the store and the catalog design are probably the biggest issues. Granted, yeah, everything here is probably under parody but this is a small dev and IKEA has money. Might be able to change those and get away with it.

("Your furniture looks like IKEA furniture?" Get outta here)

Foffy · Oct 31, 2022

Is the only similarity being it's a store with a yellow logo and blue building design? Isn't this the same design of a Best Buy?

Youngfossil · Oct 31, 2022

DiipuSurotu said:
SCP?

Also thread title is kinda misleading then

Secure Contain Protect

DanarchyReigns · Oct 31, 2022

DiipuSurotu said:
SCP?

Also thread title is kinda misleading then

Main - SCP Foundation

The SCP Foundation's 'top-secret' archives, declassified for your enjoyment.

scp-wiki.wikidot.com

It's a massive horror universe.

And not really, I link the Steam page in the opening post.

LiK · Oct 31, 2022

SCP is a Wiki where people come up with stories about the SCP universe. You shouldn't technically be making any money based on it but if you change enough stuff, it's not a big deal. ex: CONTROL was highly inspired/influenced by it and even the devs admitted to it. This fan game is no different. I only see them forcing the dev to change the store name.

Euler · Oct 31, 2022

DiipuSurotu said:
Isn't the "parody is okay" thing a US thing?

Sweden has a similar "satire is okay" thing so idk if there is a real issue here

Blizz · Oct 31, 2022

Lowblood said:
I feel like the color scheme for the exterior of the store and the catalog design are probably the biggest issues. Granted, yeah, everything here is probably under parody but this is a small dev and IKEA has money. Might be able to change those and get away with it.

("Your furniture looks like IKEA furniture?" Get outta here)

I feel like they'd get away with it anyhow since it falls under parody no? I don't see what IKEA is trying to do here except trying to scare an individual.

DiipuSurotu · Oct 31, 2022

Foffy said:
Is the only similarity being it's a store with a yellow logo and blue building design?

Doesn't seem like it:

IKEA said:
"Your game uses a blue and yellow sign with a Scandinavian name on the store, a blue box-like building, yellow vertical stiped shirts identical to those worn by IKEA personnel, a gray path on the floor, furniture that looks like IKEA furniture, and product signage that looks like IKEA signage. All the foregoing immediately suggest that the game takes place in an IKEA store."

Alek · Oct 31, 2022

Now it really is the Ikea game. Thanks Ikea for the free press. The developer should speak to as many outlets as possible about this to publisise the game around this, thereby cementing the perception that it's an Ikea game while making the minimum changes required.

Mivey · Oct 31, 2022

I think this would easily fall under fair use in the US, but I doubt the developer is interested in a lengthy legal suit over this, so they will probably change the design of the store and uniforms a bit.

DiipuSurotu · Oct 31, 2022

Youngfossil said:
Secure Contain Protect

DanarchyReigns said:
It's a massive horror universe.

LiK said:
SCP is a Wiki where people come up with stories about the SCP universe. You shouldn't technically be making any money based on it but if you change enough stuff, it's not a big deal. ex: CONTROL was highly inspired/influenced by it and even the devs admitted to it. This fan game is no different. I only see them forcing the dev to change the store name.

Euler said:
Sweden has a similar "satire is okay" thing so idk if there is a real issue here

Ah, thanks

Gestault · Oct 31, 2022

I'm deeply concerned that I'm going to accidently walk into an SCP-offshoot videogame the next time I intend to buy tables made out of illegally harvested Siberian forest lumber. It's just so confusing!

signal · Oct 31, 2022

Is this one of those dumb 'they HAVE to sue otherwise anyone will be able to use their IP!' cases

Uzzy · Oct 31, 2022

DiipuSurotu said:
Isn't the "parody is okay" thing a US thing?

US parody protection is stronger than most other jurisdictions. Weirdly, this letter originates from a US law firm, while the developer is UK based. Ikea would have a much better chance of winning any law suit in the UK. Though I imagine suing him in the US would make it much more expensive to defend, so that's probably part of the calculation to intimidate him into compliance.

IANAL, but I'm also not sure this work would truly fall under parody, it's not intrinsically poking fun at Ikea. If it's a broader satire, then that wouldn't necessarily be protected. Certainly an argument there.

Dyle · Oct 31, 2022

Weird that Ikea would do this when the game didn't even make fun of the horse meat in their meatballs

TheMoon · Oct 31, 2022

well, congrats on the free promo

putting another SCP game on my wishlist thanks to this news cycle

Gentlemen · Oct 31, 2022

That's an Ikea. pretty sure this dev saw this coming and thought they could get a lot of preorders for a middling looking survival game before the c&ds hosed their notions.

SpankyDoodle · Oct 31, 2022

Gentlemen said:
That's an Ikea. pretty sure this dev saw this coming and thought they could get a lot of preorders for a middling looking survival game before the c&ds hosed their notions.

Go watch South Park Imaginationland for a very very encompassing look at just how far parody protections go. They were on the phones with S&P constantly to get all the designs as close to the real thing as they possibly could without going over, meanwhile this is a store (that could also be a Best Buy) that's name is literally satire.

Gestault · Oct 31, 2022

Gentlemen said:
That's an Ikea. pretty sure this dev saw this coming and thought they could get a lot of preorders for a middling looking survival game before the c&ds hosed their notions.

Oh definitely. If you can recognize that something is being referenced in a derivative creative work, it's super illegal.

/s

DrScruffleton · Oct 31, 2022

It's crazy how companies go out of their ways to look like the villains in stories like this. Is it just a lack of competence when it comes to marketing?

Gentlemen · Oct 31, 2022

SpankyDoodle said:
Go watch South Park Imaginationland for a very very encompassing look at just how far parody protections go. They were on the phones with S&P constantly to get all the designs as close to the real thing as they possibly could without going over, meanwhile this is a store (that could also be a Best Buy) that's name is literally satire.

south park did their homework about what was protected.

the best this guy is attempting is that dumb speeding ticket 'I saw other people also speeding, officer!' defense. Which is in and of itself an admission of guilt.

He's going to lose this fight.

CatAssTrophy · Oct 31, 2022

Chucky Cheese and other (now defunct) animatronic kids party places would have had legal ammo for years so either they didn't care, or IKEA doesn't fully understand how the parody/satire laws work and/or why this isn't harming their business.

Yuntu · Oct 31, 2022

Gentlemen said:
south park did their homework about what was protected.

the best this guy is attempting is that dumb speeding ticket 'I saw other people also speeding, officer!' defense. Which is in and of itself an admission of guilt.

He's going to lose this fight.

They didn't do anything illegal though. There is nothing to admit. Weird take.

Chev · Oct 31, 2022

DiipuSurotu said:
Isn't the "parody is okay" thing a US thing?

It's a thing in a lot of countries, but the thing just about everywhere is it's up to a judge to decide if does count as parody in the first place.

Gentlemen · Oct 31, 2022

Yuntu said:
They didn't do anything illegal though. There is nothing to admit. Weird take.

I didn't say they did anything illegal. I'm saying they're an inexperienced dev working (seemingly) alone who thought he could escape the notice of a company the size of ikea, let alone win any kind of fight with what is a staggering gap in legal representation. He's going to lose, whether or not that's a bad thing is a different discussion. Looking at the kickstarter and early access page tells me this game's future sales potential probably isn't worth whatever legal fees he's facing.

apocat · Oct 31, 2022

Gentlemen said:
I didn't say they did anything illegal. I'm saying they're an inexperienced dev working (seemingly) alone who thought he could escape the notice of a company the size of ikea, let alone win any kind of fight with what is a staggering gap in legal representation. He's going to lose, whether or not that's a bad thing is a different discussion. Looking at the kickstarter and early access page tells me this game's future sales potential probably isn't worth whatever legal fees he's facing.

Essentially, legal bullying from a major company is OK, simply because it would be to expensive to pay for legal representation. Absolutely awful take.

He shouldn't have to try and escape the notice of IKEA in the first place, and I honestly don't think he ever thought he would have to. This kind of satire isn't illegal.

IKEA comes off looking like assholes right now.

Gentlemen · Oct 31, 2022

apocat said:
Essentially, legal bullying from a major company is OK, simply because it would be to expensive to pay for legal representation. Absolutely awful take.

You aren't reading my posts if you think I even once said this is ok. Get a grip.

zashga · Oct 31, 2022

Seems like this should be legally protected as parody, but 1) I'm not a lawyer and don't know where the lines are drawn, and 2) good luck standing up to a multi-billion-dollar corporation as just some dude. You can be technically right and still get ground into the dirt.

The Fabled Englishman · Oct 31, 2022

Gentlemen said:
That's an Ikea. pretty sure this dev saw this coming and thought they could get a lot of preorders for a middling looking survival game before the c&ds hosed their notions.

I mean, Escape from Tarkov does almost exactly the same thing. Except it's even more blatant because they call it "IDEA".

apocat · Oct 31, 2022

Gentlemen said:
You aren't reading my posts if you think I even once said this is ok. Get a grip.

You're the one who talked about "admission of guilt". Guilty of what? Parody?

Brawly Likes to Brawl · Oct 31, 2022

This clearly falls under parody but it doesn't matter because copyright law is deliberately designed for corporations to bully defendants into complicity regardless of whether they're in the wrong or not

SpankyDoodle · Oct 31, 2022

Gentlemen said:
south park did their homework about what was protected.

the best this guy is attempting is that dumb speeding ticket 'I saw other people also speeding, officer!' defense. Which is in and of itself an admission of guilt.

He's going to lose this fight.

If he loses it'll only because he doesn't want to actually fight, because no he would not. "Furniture that resembles IKEA furniture" lmao they're out of their damn minds

Alvis · Oct 31, 2022

wishlisted, I really hope this dude fights and wins, the more ikea looks like clowns after all is said and done the better

Culex · Oct 31, 2022

Highly encourage everyone to check out the SCP story behind it. It's totally bonkers.

Ikea threatens legal action over SCP "Infinite Ikea" game

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