Last weekend we reported that Futuremark Games had filed a trademark for Pwnage, later that week Jukka Mäkinen, Executive Producer, Futuremark Games Studio, responded claiming that they only filed the trademark because they wanted to "protect ourselves from squatters."

MTV, quick to poke fun, tracked down one of the folks who work at Pwned.Com to see what they think about the whole legal silliness.

"PWNED.com is a site for gamers pure and simple. We never felt the need to trademark the word we never created. We do this for fun. We are looking into our options because of this."

Yes, that's right, we need someone to trademark Pwned too.

'Pwned.com' Weighs In On 'Pwnage' Trademark Attempt [MTV Multiplayer]

The Finnish software company had initially filed papers on the prevalent word on Feb. 26 to protect the word in relation to:

"... computer game software; computer game programs; computer game discs; interactive multimedia computer game program; downloadable ring tones, ... multimedia software recorded on CD-ROM featuring fictional characters and computer games; pre-recorded DVD's, video tapes, laser discs featuring movies about fictional characters, and pre-recorded compact discs featuring music; motion picture films on fictional characters...".

But they did it, Mäkinen says, to protect their company, not make money:

Fellow gamers,

Our purpose in filing for trademark on the name "Pwnage" is not to charge money or stop people from using the expression. That's not what a trademark is for. Instead, we want to protect ourselves from squatters (or what I call campers) - people looking to trademark the name on false pretenses, just to make a claim against Futuremark Games Studio for its use.

Jukka Mäkinen, Executive Producer, Futuremark Games Studio

What confuses me is how Pwnage in anyway has anything to do with Futuremark Games Studio. I mean, sure, I suppose you could use the word and the company in this sentence: Futuremark was pwned by the United States Patent and Trademark Office when they tried to trademark a word that had no rights to.

Maybe they should patent n00bs instead.

Futuremark responds to "Pwnage" trademark controversy [Futuremark's YouGamers Site]

"... computer game software; computer game programs; computer game discs; interactive multimedia computer game program; downloadable ring tones, ... multimedia software recorded on CD-ROM featuring fictional characters and computer games; pre-recorded DVD's, video tapes, laser discs featuring movies about fictional characters, and pre-recorded compact discs featuring music; motion picture films on fictional characters...".

Wow... at least they aren't attempting to apply it to every piece of media published or anything like that.

I am not a lawyer, but will be interested to see how Futuremark will protect its mark if they are successful in their efforts. I envision nightly round ups of thirteen year olds around the world for their blatant misappropriation of the term. This follows previously-cool Fark's attempts to trademark "NSFW."

Next to be trademarked will be "n00bs," "1337," "hax04," "ROTFL," "LOL" and "pr0n."

I'm going to get ahead of the curve on this one and trademark "d0uchage."

[United States Patent and Trademark Office via Trademork]

As predicted, we lost the first ever Kotaku versus Gizmodo Halo 3 challenge last night, 4 to 2.

While the games were close, we should have had a clear, spotless victory since Kotaku alum and Bungie superstar Luke Smith was on our team. I blame, besides our general suckatude, the fact that we never played as a team prior to last night while Giz made the right decision to train as a unit nightly leading up to the event.

Hit the jump for the full report.

Game One
Team Slayer on Guardian
Score: 50:40
Kotaku Win

As you can see we died an awful lot in that first game. Sure we managed to pull out a 10 kill-spread victory, but the lots of dying was a sign of things to come.

Game Two
Team Slayer on Construct
Score: 50:42
Gizmodo Win

In this second game we managed to have the tables completely turned on us, losing by a 10 kill-spread. I will point out that I am the only one (LUKE) who didn't have a negative kill/death spread.

Game Three
Team Slayer on Snowbound
Score: 50:49
Gizmodo Win

This loss was, for me, devastating. Mark and I had practiced quite a bit on the map and had come to the conclusion that getting ahead early and then holding the ridge was the way to win. But come game time, the entire team ran for the caves. Still it was a very close game.

Game Four
Team Slayer on Epitaph
Score: 50:44
Gizmodo Win

We should have talked the map choices through more ahead of time, because Mark, Mike and I had almost never played on this map, and it showed.

Game Five
Team Slayer on The Pit
Score: 50:39
Kotaku Win

This is one of my favorite maps, it also happens to be the one that Mike, Mark and I practiced most together on. While we won the match, by quite a spread. I still wasn't happy at all with how I did, getting killed a full dozen times and only killing eight.

Game Six
Team Slayer on High Ground
Score: 50:48
Gizmodo Win

This last match was a real nail-biter. We were trailing by quite a bit and then managed to come back strong, but not strong enough. In the final minutes of this final match we got within two of a win, but then Luke got popped by Team Gizmodo, while Fahey and I cowered in the garage trying not to get in the way.

For duffers, there's the golf pro. Tennis players, of course, have the tennis pro. But gamers? Tom "Tsquared" Taylor has you covered. The 18 year-old Major League Gamer created Gaming-Lessons, a site that offers lessons in Halo 2 and Super Smash Bros. Melee pwnage. Tsquared claims that over 1,000 lessons have been given so far, which range from 15 minute to hour long one-on-one tutorials. Game blog GameSetWatch interviewed Tsquared, who had this to say:

Lessons for a video game are just like any other lesson. If you want to improve in something where lessons are offered, for example, golfing, surfing, or snowboarding, then you would jump on the chance to do so. The only difference is we have the best instructors and professional gamers in the world brought into 1 website.

There are currently ten instructors, though most of the Halo 2 teachers are already "sold out." It is possible to schedule lessons with 8 year-old Victor "LiL Poison" De Leon III for US $15 a half hour. Which means, LiL Poison isn't only better than most people at Halo, but he also makes more. Though, perhaps a lessons-for-math-homework arrangement could be worked out. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [GameSetWatch]

A writer over on Bona Fide Reviews walks readers through the dangers of making idle claims when you are about to take Fatal1ty head-on in a little Quake 4. John was the first guy picked in a raffle to play against the gamer at CES. Unfortunately, John made the mistake of saying that Fatal1ty wouldn t score a single point against him.

Fatal1ty decided to have some fun and both win the match and prove John right. Final score: -11 to 0. Excellent pwnage.

What s it like to play Fatal1ty? [Bona Fide Reviews]

If only... Sigh.

If Hackers Ruled the World 5 [Worth 1000]