3D Realms Sued by Metal Band Iron Maiden

If you’re a fan of classic heavy metal music as I am, it’s likely a safe wager that you’re familiar with the legendary British band Iron Maiden. If you also happen to enjoy games which pay homage to early 3D first-person shooter titles, you might also be familiar with a game by the name of Ion Maiden, developed by Voidpoint and published by 3D Realms.

You’ve probably noticed a striking similarity between those two names, and that similarity has now begun to cause serious legal headaches for 3D Realms. According to multiple sources, representatives of the band recently filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Ion Maiden’s publisher. The lawsuit primarily seeks approximately two million dollars in damages.

That serious amount of cash isn’t all the lawsuit is after, however. The band’s representatives also demand within the suit that 3D Realms immediately stop using the Ion Maiden name and relinquish ownership of the URL for the game’s website. That last point is presumably so that the URL can either be taken down or altered to redirect Internet browsers to the band’s website.

I can see the thought process behind the claims and accusations made by the band’s representatives within the text of the lawsuit, but I have a feeling that such claims might be proven frivolous in court if the case goes any further.

For example, one of the claims made in the suit alleges that the name of Ion Maiden’s protagonist, Shelly Harrison, is a blatant rip-off of the name of Iron Maiden’s bass guitarist, Steve Harris. The second main claim in the suit states that Ion Maiden’s “look and feel” is too similar to that of the band’s mobile game, Legacy of the Beast, which was released in 2016.

I’ve never played Ion Maiden, nor have I played much of Legacy of the Beast; in light of that, I’m not the least bit qualified to assess the claim that the two games are similar in any respect or to any extent. That could very well be a valid complaint which would easily hold up in court.

However, I have quite a strong hunch that it’ll be exceptionally difficult for Iron Maiden’s legal team to prove in court that the name Shelly Harrison has anything to do with Steve Harris.

I honestly think that whole idea may well have materialized from the band’s legal team desperately searching for more “ammunition” to use in court, for lack of a better word. Again, though, whichever court decides to hear the case (if it goes that far) might disagree and rule in the band’s favor.

Because of the precedents that could potentially be set if this case goes to court and ends up in a specific ruling, my hope at this point is that this entire lawsuit arose from an overeager legal team lashing out at the first thing they saw; which could potentially confuse anyone who wasn’t familiar with either the band or the game.

I feel confident in maintaining that hope because a scenario that’s quite similar to this case took place back in 2016. In that case, an overzealous representative of the equally-legendary metal band Metallica issued a cease-and-desist letter to a group of Metallica’s fans who had formed a popular tribute band.

Once that lawyer’s mistake was discovered, Metallica issued a formal apology to the tribute band and quickly made amends. I’m hoping this scenario ends up taking the same turn, but I suppose only time will tell.