Indies with 'choose your own adventure' descriptions are getting trademark infringement notices

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The claims come from the publisher of the Choose Your Own Adventure books.

Purrfect Apawcalypse
(Image credit: 90 Percent Studios)

The publishers of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, Chooseco, is claiming trademark infringement on several developers who have released games on itch.io that describe themselves as "choose your own adventures." The infringement notices are being sent to the Itch.io gaming storefront and have resulted in four games' pages being suspended. 

Itch.io founder Leaf Corcoran took to Twitter to warn developers about the notices. 

Talking to The Verge, Cocoran said that the suspended game includes Purrfect Apawcalypse, It's a Date, Choose Your Own Adventure BG and A Series of Choose Your Own Adventure Stories Where No Matter What You Choose You Are Immediately Killed by a Werewolf. if you check out the Itch.io page for Purrfect Apawcalypse, you can see that the game has been taken down. 

This is not the first time that Chooseco has enforced its trademark. Back in 2007, the company sued Chrysler over a Jeep marketing campaign for using the tag line "Choose Your Adventure" and then it also accused Netflix over the interactive Black Mirror episode Bandersnatch, where a character refers to a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' book.

Rachel Watts
Rachel Watts

Rachel had been bouncing around different gaming websites as a freelancer and staff writer for three years before settling at PC Gamer back in 2019. She mainly writes reviews, previews, and features, but on rare occasions will switch it up with news and guides. When she's not taking hundreds of screenshots of the latest indie darling, you can find her nurturing her parsnip empire in Stardew Valley and planning an axolotl uprising in Minecraft. She loves 'stop and smell the roses' games—her proudest gaming moment being the one time she kept her virtual potted plants alive for over a year.